Prof Chenoweth (35) is director of the University of Denver's programme on terrorism and insurgency and will visit Otago University as a William Evans Fellow and guest of the university's National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.
She was named as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy journal in 2013.
Her book, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, has won several top awards, including the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for the best book on government, politics or international affairs.
Centre organisers said Prof Chenoweth was one of the most prominent international academics to have visited since the centre was established in 2010.
She will give a free public lecture at the university's Archway 4 lecture theatre at 5.15pm on February 11.
Prof Chenoweth's talk is supported by the centre, the Otago University Centre for Theology and Public Issues, and the university sociology, gender and social work department.
