Resident Research Associates

 

Mango AngarJane Mango Angar 

Mango is pursing her PhD in Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley. As a comparativist she aims to explore the implications of electoral violence on political accountability, the effects of electoral violence on the long-term welfare of historically marginalized communities and the effectiveness of institutional reforms intended to mitigate the occurrence of electoral violence. She is equally interested in examining the effects of the weaponization of sexual violence against women during political violence on the participation of women in politics as voters and as candidates. Her regional focus is on East Africa.

In 2017 she worked as the assistant editor to the ‘Asian Women’ journal, at the Research Institute of Asian Woman (RIAW), Sookmyung Women’s University. She has also interned with The Asia Foundation, on the Women Business Center and Incubation Project (WBC), a microfinance development project that works to foster women entrepreneurs with small and medium sized business in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Mango has a Masters in Development Policy from the Korea Development Institute (KDI) School of Public Policy and Management, and a Bachelors in Political Science and International Relations from Sookmyung Women’s University in South Korea.


Clara-BicalhoClara Bicalho 

Clara Bicalho is a PhD student in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her substantive research interests include political participation and accountability, and migration and the political geography of migrant integration. Her methodological interests have focused on experimental research methods and on developing tools to improve and communicate research designs. She received a B.A. in Political Science from New York University Abu Dhabi and has worked as a researcher and predoctoral fellow at the NYU Center for Technology and Economic Development and the Berlin Social Science Center, respectively.


Anna CallisAnna Callis 

Anna joined the Center on the Politics of Development in August 2015. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science at the UC Berkeley. Her research interests include comparative politics, political economy and research methods, with a particular focus on political parties, party systems, and multi-method research. Anna holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from FLACSO, Ecuador and a B.A. in Political Science and Latin American and Caribbean Studies from the University of Michigan. Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., she worked at UFCW Local 876, a union that represents workers in the food retail and meat packing industries.


Juan-Campos2Juan Campos 

Juan Campos is a Ph.D. student in political science at the University of California, Berkeley.  He is generally interested in studying security institutions, political violence, and corruption in Latin America.  His most recent research assesses the causes and consequences of drug trafficking violence in Mexico.  Juan holds an M.A. in political science from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) and a B.A. in government and international politics from George Mason University.  Before starting his doctoral program at UC Berkeley, Juan was a research assistant at CSULB and worked as a teaching assistant at Harvard University for a course on U.S.-Mexico relations.


Anirvan2Anirvan Chowdhury

Anirvan is a graduate student at UC Berkeley’s department of political science. His broad research interests lie in comparative politics and the political economy of development. His current projects centre on women’s political mobilisation and collective action, ideology in political parties, and public service delivery. Prior to this, Anirvan worked at the International Food Policy Research Institute and the World Bank in Washington DC, and at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, India. He has studied economics and public policy at the Madras School of Economics and Georgetown University, respectively.

https://anirvanchowdhury.github.io


Sarah Daniel2Sarah Daniel

Sarah is pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her thematic research interests include comparative politics, Africa and the African diaspora, and global political economy. In particular, she focuses on the convergence between international development and cross-cultural oppositions to oppression and conflict. Prior to beginning her doctoral program, Sarah worked as a Research and Development Manager in Tanzania, monitoring the efficacy of an NGO’s development projects deployed in villages across the rural Kilimanjaro region. Sarah received her B.A in International Studies at the University of California, Irvine.


Rachel FisherRachel Fisher

Rachel joined the Center on the Politics of Development in August 2017. She is pursuing her Ph.D. in Political Science at UC Berkeley with a focus on comparative politics. Her research interests include candidate ambition and recruitment, international development, and policy evaluation. She employs experimental methods to study gender differences in political participation. Prior to starting her doctoral program, Rachel spent several years working for the Gender and Civic Engagement Lab running field experiments domestically and abroad in Uganda. Her work has been published in the journal Political Behavior. She received her B.S. in Sociology from Brigham Young University and a graduate certificate in Project Monitoring and Evaluation from American University.


Ritika Goel2Ritika Goel

Ritika is a PHD candidate in Comparative Politics at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests lie at the intersection of comparative politics and public policy. Broadly, she is interested in investigating the political conditions under which developing country governments implement pro-poor or egalitarian public policy. She is also interested in decisions around the distribution of societal penalties, business- state relationship and drivers of socio-economic mobility. Before coming to Berkeley, Ritika worked in International Development in South Asia including with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank Group and with the UK Department for International Development (DFID). She has a Masters in Economics and Public Policy from Princeton University, and a Bachelors in Engineering from NSIT, Delhi University.


Pranav Gupta2Pranav Gupta

Pranav is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to joining UC Berkeley, he had completed an M.Sc. in Political Science and Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He also holds a B.A. in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. His broad research interests include party systems, voting behavior, and the politics of public service delivery.


Johnathan3Johnathan Guy

Johnathan Guy is pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on the comparative political economy of energy and climate change. More specifically, he is interested in how decarbonization (or lack thereof) in low-income societies can be understood as a political outcome, one conditioned by the presence of varied institutions and coalitions of interests. Prior to pursuing his Ph.D., Johnathan completed a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. He is also on the editorial board of The Trouble Magazine, an online publication dedicated to developing political strategies for addressing climate change.


Heinze-Alyssa-PhotoAlyssa Heinze

Alyssa is pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. She is broadly interested in gender, representation, the political economy of development, and political inequality, with a regional focus on India. Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., Alyssa conducted research as a Fulbright-Nehru Research Fellow at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in Pune, India, and as a Lombard Fellow directing the implementation of a large-scale survey in rural Maharashtra. Through CLEA and McGorrian Fellowships at the American Institute of Indian Studies in the Deccan College Post-Graduate Research Institute, Alyssa also spent a year learning Marathi in Pune, India. Alyssa has worked for the Women’s Economic Empowerment Unit at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., Vera Solutions in Mumbai, India, Chhori (Daughter) in Kathmandu, Nepal, and McKinsey & Company in Boston, MA. She holds an M.Sc. in Development Economics from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a B.A. in Political Science and South Asian Studies from Dartmouth College.


Sharik_TesuSharik Laliwala

Sharik is pursuing his Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is interested in the questions of ethnicity and the political economy of development. Sharik wishes to particularly understand how does the political economy of caste and religion operate in India. Sharik holds an M.A. in Contemporary India from King’s College London and a B.B.A. from Ahmedabad University. He has worked as a researcher with the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Sciences Po, and Ashoka University.


Dinah LawanDinah Lawan

Dinah is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Politics and International Relations at the University of California at Berkeley. She is interested in the question of Peacebuilding, Security, and Development in Africa, especially in west Africa. She completed her B. A from the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN. She wrote a senior thesis that won an award for the best paper that addressing current national issues in her undergraduate studies. https://kroc.nd.edu/news-events/news/peace-studies-senior-wins-political-science-essay-award/

Adan MartinezAdan Martinez

Adan S. Martinez is pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on comparative politics, political economy, and political behavior in Latin America. His research interests include the provision of public goods, class and ethnic cleavages, and political behavior addressing public good disparities. Prior to starting his doctoral program, Adan spent time working at his alma mater as a fundraiser and a legislative assistant in the Minnesota state legislature. He received his B.A in Political Science and Latin American Studies from Macalester College.


Lily MedinaLily Medina

Lily Medina is a Ph.D. student in political science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her substantive research interests include political violence, criminal governance and citizens’ attitudes towards state and non-state actors in Latinamerica. She holds an M.S. in statistics from Humboldt University of Berlin and a B.S. in industrial engineering from University of Los Andes of Bogota. Before attending U.C. Berkeley, Lily was a predoctoral fellow at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) within the Institutions and Political Inequality unit. Her work includes evaluating community-driven development initiatives and their effect on citizen attitudes toward authority as well as R-packages for experimental designs and Bayesian methods for causal inference.


Isabella MontiniIsabella C. Montini

Isabella C. Montini is pursuing a PhD in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley with a focus on Comparative Politics and Methods. Her research focuses on the political economy of development, exploring topics such as violence, distributive politics, and welfare provision by state and “non-state” actors. Her methodological interests include applied causal inference methods. Prior to pursuing her PhD, Isabella worked as a research fellow at the Poverty, Violence, and Governance Lab at Stanford University in projects concerning criminal governance, militia-expansion, and police violence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Isabella holds a MA in Latin American Studies with a specialization in Political Economy from Stanford University and a BA in Political Science and Sociology from the Humboldt-University in Berlin.


Rachel MuchaRachel Mucha

Rachel is pursuing a JD/Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests include comparative environmental law and politics, gender, and political representation in South Asia and Latin America. Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., Rachel conducted research on gender and environmental politics as a Fulbright Fellow in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and as a post-graduate Georgetown Student Innovation for Public Service fellow in India. Previously, Rachel worked for the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero’s emerging market investments team, as well as for The Asia Group in Washington, D.C, and as a research assistant for the Gates Foundation in India. She holds a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.


Bhumi PurohitBhumi Purohit

Bhumi joined the Center on the Politics of Development in August 2016. She is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests broadly focus on gender, bureaucracy, and representation with a regional focus on India. Her dissertation examines how bureaucrats react to the entry of minority politicians through reserved seats, particularly women, and the effects of bureaucratic discretion on policy outcomes. She further studies the strategies minority politicians use to overcome bureaucratic discretion. Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., Bhumi worked as a policy consultant with the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) in Delhi, India. She has also worked as a Program Associate with One Acre Fund and served as a Clinton American-India Foundation Fellow in India. She holds an M.Sc. in Contemporary India Studies from the University of Oxford, and a B.A. in Public Policy from Duke University.

https://bhumipurohit.com/


Daniel Quiroga AngelDaniel Quiroga-Ángel

Daniel is pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science at UC Berkeley. His broad research interests lie in the political economy of conflict and development, with a regional focus on Latin America. Methodologically, he is interested in the application of spatial econometrics and machine learning tools to causal inference. Previously, Daniel worked as a researcher for the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). He also held research and analyst positions in Colombia at Fundación Ideas para la Paz, Los Andes University, and the National Intelligence Agency. Daniel graduated with honors from Los Andes University with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and received master’s degrees from his alma mater, New York University, and Northwestern University. His research has been supported by the Center for Sociocultural and International Studies at Los Andes University, the Fulbright Program, and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program at Northwestern University.

Johanna Reyes OrtegaJohanna Reyes Ortega

Johanna is pursuing a PhD in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley focusing on comparative politics and international development. She is particularly interested in exploring how economic shocks generated by mass social phenomena (such as migration patterns or revolutions) can lead to more equitable policies that favor vulnerable populations such as women or the poor, and in evaluating the role of diasporas in promoting economic growth in developing countries, particularly in Latin America. Prior to Berkeley, she worked for the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and for a Los Angeles based nonprofit organization that educates local Latinx elected officials on water and sustainability issues. She’s holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Development Economics from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations and the Global Economy from the University of Southern California.

Vanessa Navarro Rodriguez2Vanessa Navarro Rodriguez

Vanessa is a Ph.D. student in political science at the University of California, Berkeley, focusing on comparative politics and international relations. She spent the first two years of her Ph.D. researching the prevalence of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by peacekeepers during UN peacekeeping operations. Her dissertation looks at the heterogeneity of the Mapuche in Chile, their political behavior, and how they engage with the Chilean government. Prior to attending U.C. Berkeley, she graduated from Cornell University magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Government. She has previously worked on a variety of research projects in both International Relations and American politics. She most recently worked for Aila Matanock’s Invited Interventions project collecting information on security-related interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to graduate school, she worked as Sabrina Karim’s research assistant for the Elsie Initiative on Women in Peace Operations and collaborated on the MOWIP Methodology. Her work has been supported by the UC Berkeley Center for Latin American Studies, the UC Berkeley Mentored Research Award, the U.C Berkeley Graduate School Chancellor’s Fellowship, the Samuel R. Berger National Leadership Scholarship from Cornell University, and the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute.


Oren Sammet2Oren Samet

Oren Samet is a PhD candidate in the Political Science Department at the University of California, Berkeley. His research centers on opposition parties and civil society, focusing in particular on the international activities of these actors in authoritarian contexts. Before coming to Berkeley, he worked in various roles for non-governmental organizations in Thailand, including as Research and Advocacy Director for ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, a network of regional legislators. He previously worked as a Junior Fellow in the Democracy and Rule of Law Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and holds a B.A. from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.


Surili SethSurili Sheth

Surili is pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley. Her research interests center on identities (such as gender, religion, and caste), public service delivery, local institutions and inequality in South Asia and the United States. Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., Surili worked as a fellow with IMAGO Global Grassroots in Ahmedabad and Delhi, a manager with IDinsight in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, and Delhi, and a research associate with the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) in Hyderabad, India. In these capacities, she has worked with SEWA, Transform Rural India, the Society for the Elimination of Rural Poverty in Andhra Pradesh (SERP), Ministry of Rural Development (Andhra Pradesh), and Gates Foundation on projects encompassing biometric smartcards and governance, rural livelihoods, women’s agency and empowerment, and water and sanitation. She has also worked with the Affordable Housing Institute in Boston and the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics in Nairobi. Surili holds an MPA/ID from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a B.S. in Economics and Political Science from Ohio State University.


Yosef TadesseYosef Tadesse

Yosef is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley with a focus on comparative politics. His broad research interests include African politics, ethnic politics, electoral politics, and political violence among others. He has a particular interest in parties and party systems in newly emerging democracies in sub–Saharan Africa. Furthermore, he is interested in exploring state formation processes, political institutions as well as elections and political representation in East Africa on a comparative plane with other emerging and developed democracies in different regions of the world. Prior to beginning his doctoral studies, Yosef worked as a research assistant in a collaborative field project by the World Bank, Oxford University, New York University Abu Dhabi and the Jobs Creation Commission in Ethiopia focusing on the labor market and youth unemployment in the capital, Addis Ababa. Yosef holds a B.A. in Political Science from New York University Abu Dhabi.


SONY DSCAndrew Wojtanik

Andrew is a Ph.D. Candidate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on elite politics and regime decision-making in Sub-Saharan Africa. His work draws on an original dataset on individual elites in Africa from 1960-2010, archival materials, and firsthand interviews with former ministers, party brokers, and other government officials in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Andrew is a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship and the Peter H. Odegard Memorial Award in Political Science at UC-Berkeley. Prior to joining UC-Berkeley, Andrew worked for several years on foreign affairs in Washington, DC and served as a researcher at the Harvard Kennedy School. Andrew completed a Bachelor of Science in International Politics (summa cum laude) at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 2012.


Kamya YadavKamya Yadav

Kamya is pursuing her Ph.D. in Political Science at UC Berkeley. Her research interests include gender and politics in South Asia, the political economy of development, and  influence operations as well as their impact on women politicians. She is especially interested in exploring women’s political representation and participation in India through empirical and qualitative methods. Kamya holds a B.A. in Politics from Princeton University and has worked as a researcher for the Partnership on Countering Influence Operations at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.


Soo You2Soo Sun You

Soo Sun You is pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on comparative politics, political behavior, and public policy. Her research interests lie at the intersection of economic and political inequality and development. She plans to study how political institutions affect levels of perceived economic inequality and political behavior in sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., Soo Sun worked as a Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) research fellow in Ethiopia, implementing randomized controlled experiments aimed at empowering women. She also worked as a journalist in Seoul, South Korea, focusing on minority rights and education. She holds a Master of Public Policy from Seoul National University and a B.A. in Economics from UC Berkeley.