Jonathan Weigel is a third-year PhD student in Political Economy and Government. His research interests include: the political economy of development; economic and political legacies of precolonial and colonial states in Central Africa; fragile states and epidemic disease; and foreign aid effectiveness. He is currently working on a joint project with James Robinson, Nathan Nunn, and Sara Lowes exploring the long-run effects of the Kuba Kingdom in the Democratic Republic of Congo.