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Biography
Todd Landman is Professor of Political Science in the School of Politics and International Relations, Research Director of the Rights Lab, and Deputy Director, Research Strand Co-Lead and ECR Cohort Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery in War. He is Member (2021-2026) and Senior Independent Member (2023-2026) of Council of the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). He is member of the editorial boards for the British Journal of Political Science, the Nordic Journal of Human Rights, and Politics and Governance, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). He has a BA in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania (1988), an MA in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University (1990), an MA in Political Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder (1993), and PhD in Comparative Politics from the University of Essex (2000).
Previously, he was Pro Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Social Sciences (2015-2023) at the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and Professor of Government (2009-2015) and Executive Dean (2013-2015) of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Essex. He teaches, researches, publishes, and carries out international consultancy on slavery, forced labour, and human trafficking. He has published over 100 peer reviewed journal articles, research monographs, chapters, textbooks, commissioned reports, handbooks, and reviews.
He has carried out work on projects with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Development Programme, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, the European External Action Service, EUROSTAT, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the UK Department for International Development, the Swedish International Development Agency, the Danish International Development Agency, and the Canadian International Development Agency.
His current work on modern slavery includes externally funded prevalence estimation projects in Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Africa, Europe, and the United States; human rights risk analysis for J. Sainsbury's Ltd; quantitative analysis of motivations of faith-based anti-slavery organisations; and the logic of slavery in war and the use of child soldiers in the Colombian Civil War.
His work as part of the Rights Lab team has been recognised by the 2025 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Higher and Further Education.
Expertise Summary
The main focus of Professor Landman's research is on the systematic measurement and comparative analysis of modern slavery, forced labour, human trafficking, and war. He is author of Human Rights and Democracy: The Precarious Triumph of Ideals (Bloomsbury 2013), Protecting Human Rights: A Comparative Study (Georgetown University Press 2005), Studying Human Rights (Routledge 2006), and Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics (Routledge 2000, 2003, 2008, 2016); co-author of The Rights Track: Sound Evidence on Human Rights and Modern Slavery (Anthem Press 2022), Measuring Human Rights (Routledge 2009), Assessing the Quality of Democracy (International IDEA 2008); Governing Latin America (Polity Press 2003), and Citizenship Rights and Social Movements (Oxford University Press 1997, 2000); editor of Human Rights Volumes I-IV (Sage 2009), and co-editor of the Sage Handbook of Comparative Politics (Sage 2009) and Real Social Science: Applied Phronesis (Cambridge University Press 2012).
He is author or co-author of over 50 peer reviewed journal articles published in Political Geography, International Studies Quarterly, The British Journal of Political Science, Human Rights Quarterly, Journal of Risk Research, Democratization, Political Studies, The Journal of Human Rights, Spatial Economics, World Development, Nature Humanities and Social Sciences, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Electoral Studies, Human Rights and Human Welfare, Public Law, and The California Western International Law Journal. He is author or co-author of 30 book chapters published by Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, MIT Press, Duke University Press, University of California Press, Elsevier, Routledge, Sage, Lynne Reiner, and Palgrave.
Teaching Summary
Professor Landman has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on human rights, development, democracy (including development economics); comparative politics, comparative political methodology;… read more
Research Summary
Professor Landman works on a range of externally funded projects on modern slavery prevalence estimation in Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Africa, Europe, and the United States; human rights risks… read more
Recent Publications
FACUNDO ALBORNOZ CRESPO, MATTHIAS DAHM, LUIS FRONES and TODD LANDMAN, 2025. Economics and Politics.
ALBERT NYARKO-AGYEI, DOREEN BOYD, BEN BREWSTER, TODD LANDMAN, SABRINA LI, ESTHER WEIR and EMILY WYMAN, 2024. A Partially Pooled NSUM Model: Detailed estimation of CSEM trafficking prevalence in Philippine municipalities Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C: Applied Statistics.
TODD LANDMAN, BEN BREWSTER and SARA THORNTON, 2024. Societies. 14(4),
TODD LANDMAN and MATTHEW SMALLMAN-RAYNOR, 2023. The Politics of COVID-19: Government Response in Comparative Perspective Political Geography. 106,
Professor Landman has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on human rights, development, democracy (including development economics); comparative politics, comparative political methodology; Latin American politics; social movements; and the philosophy of social science, and the politics of human rights. He has taught PhD professional development; comparative methods for the Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis (2008-2012); Data Analysis for Political Science at the Universidad de Chile, Santiago (2010); human rights measurement for the Essex Human Rights Summer School (2014-2016); Comparative methods master classes in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Ningbo China (2015-2016), Business and Human Rights, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge (2010-2017); Comparative Methods and Human Rights, Ulster University (2013-2016) and the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Malaysia (2017). He was chair of the ESRC Midlands Graduate School Doctoral Training Partnership (2018-2022) and is the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Director of the AHRC Doctoral Focal Award for Research on Slavery in War (2026-2032).
Professor Landman has supervised 11 PhD students to completion and has been a joint supervisor for many more, who in the intervening years have acquired significant roles in international governmental and non-governmental organisations, national government branches (executive, legislative, public security, and military), and leading academic institutions around the world. These include the World Bank, Universidad de Chile, Speech Writer for President Calderón of Mexico, University of Texas at Dallas, University of Pittsburgh, University of Dundee, Instituto de Ciencias de Gobierno y Desarollo Estratégico, and the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is currently supervising 5 PhD candidates in the School of Politics and International Relations on a range of topics related to modern slavery, forced labour, and human trafficking.
Current Research
Professor Landman works on a range of externally funded projects on modern slavery prevalence estimation in Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Africa, Europe, and the United States; human rights risks in supply chains; quantitative analysis of motivations within faith-based anti-slavery organizations; and the logic of slavery in war and child soldiers in the Colombian Civil War. His research is funded by International Justice Mission, the US National Institute of Justice, the US State Department Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Office, The Templeton Religion Trust, J. Sainsbury's Ltd., and the Leverhulme Trust.
Past Research
Professor Landman's research has developed comparative measures and empirical explanations of human rights protection, state repression, and political violence. It has examined citizenship rights and social movements, human rights treaty ratification, land and income inequality and human rights, spatial diffusion of human rights, human rights and aid effectiveness and the effects of interstate and intrastate war.
Future Research
Professor Landman is working on an explanatory model on the logic of slavery in war, drawing on rational, cultural, and structural social theories, which will then be operationalised for quantitative analysis of a new global data set and comparative case study analysis.