Cyanne E. Loyle

Cyanne E. Loyle is the Board of Visitors Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the Pennsylvania State University and a Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo. Her research is motivated by a desire to better understand and contribute to the prevention of violent conflict.

To advance this end, Dr. Loyle studies the use and misuse of judicial institutions by governments and armed non-state actors to hold human rights violators to account, punish political enemies, and consolidate power. She has examined these issues in diverse contexts such the conflicts in Mozambique, Nepal, Northern Ireland, Turkey, Rwanda, and Uganda.

Her book, Escaping Justice: Impunity of State Crimes in the Age of Accountability (Cambridge 2025), tackles big questions about how powerful nations violate human rights yet often escape punishment for those crimes.

Dr. Loyle has been invited to present her work to the U.S. State Department, U.S. Department of Defense, the United Nations, and the World Bank. She co-hosts the Democracy Works podcast, a collaboration between the McCourtney Institute for Democracy and WPSU at Penn State.

Dr. Loyle holds a M.A. in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Stockton University and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Maryland.