At IDEA, we believe our unique strength is our ability to bring the diverse skill sets and capacities of students, particularly graduate students, to bear on problems in the real world of politics. Just as democracy thrives when it includes more than “the usual suspects,” so does political science. Whether you see yourself as a comparativist or an Americanist, a computer scientist or a methods scholar, there’s a place for you here. If you’re curious about graduate study, IDEA is a place to get hands-on experience doing research that matters.
All of our faculty are happy to chat; the information below may help you to choose a particular person for your interest.
Michael Neblo: Founder and Director. Deliberative democrat.
Focus areas: Congressional reform, democratic innovation around the world, applied philosophy of social science, the role of emotions in politics, political communication, and philosophy.
William Minozzi: Research Director. Political Methodologist.
Focus areas: Public opinion and polling, polarization, how elites use expert information, and how Members of Congress respond to party pressure.
Laura Moses: Assistant Research Director. Computational social scientist.
Focus areas: computational social science, AI and natural language processing, political behavior, political communication, and democratic innovations.
Ryan Kennedy: Associate Director of IDEA, Timashev Chair of Data Analytics. Comparativist and computational researcher.
Focus areas: comparative politics, international relations, American politics, computational social science, AI, technology and public policy, deliberation, prediction models.