Anya Stewart

Anya Stewart was an IGCC Dissertation Fellow from 2024-2025. Broadly, she aims to understand the calculus of state responses to domestic threats. Specifically, she focuses on the uses and abuses of martial law, a situation in which governments replace local civilian authority with military authority following an explicit declaration by the central government. In her dissertation, she puts forth a comprehensive definition of martial law, along with a measurement strategy and dataset. Additionally, she investigates the executive institutional arrangements that create the conditions favorable for using martial law as a security tool. She also explores how the use of martial law in conflict settings alters rebel behavior, arguing that martial law produces a shift from the targeting of traditional military infrastructure to the targeting of civilians and in a fashion that looks more like terrorism. Before beginning her Ph.D., Anya was the legislative and communications manager for the Personal Insurance Federation of California, a lobbying firm in Sacramento. She received her B.A. in political science with highest honors from UC Davis in 2016.