Ph.D. Job Market Candidates

David Cerero Guerra

Dissertation:  : Friend or Foe: How Criminals Shape State Service Provision
Personal Website:  https://sites.google.com/view/davidcereroguerra
Current position: Visiting Researcher at the Central European University
Departmental Profile:  https://politicalscience.yale.edu/people/david-cerero-guerra
Advisors List:  Elisabeth Wood, Ana de la O. Gerard Padro i Miquel,  Benjamin Lessing
Areas of Concentration:  Comparative Politics, Political Economy
Email:  david.cerero@yale.edu

Ekin Dursun

Dissertation:  “The Religious Welfare State: Poor Voters, Venues of Exchange, and Welfare Politics in Turkey”
Personal Website:  https://www.ekindursun.com/
Departmental Profile:  https://politicalscience.yale.edu/people/ekin-dursun
Advisors List:  Kate Baldwin, Isabela Mares, Ana De La O
Areas of Concentration:  Comparative Politics, Political Economy
Email:  ekin.dursun@yale.edu

Natalie Hernandez

Dissertation:  “Representation and Abortion Policy in the Post-Roe United States”
Personal Website:  https://nataliehernandez.com
Departmental Profile: https://politicalscience.yale.edu/people/natalie-hernandez
Advisors List:  Gregory Huber; Josh Kalla; Dawn Teele; Dara Strolovitch
Areas of Concentration:  American Politics; Political Behavior; Public Opinion; Persuasion; Representation; Gender and Politics; Abortion
Email:   natalie.hernandez@yale.edu

Austin Jang

Dissertation:  Essays on Computational Methods for Causal Inference
Personal Website:  https://austinjang.github.io/
Advisors List:  P.M. Aronow, Molly Offer-Westort, Milan Svolik, Jas Sekhon
Areas of Concentration:  Political Methodology
Email:   austin.jang@yale.edu

Nicholas Ottone

Dissertation:  The Policy Influence of Non-Profit Service Providers
Personal Website:  http://nottone.github.io
Advisors List:  Gregory Huber, Joshua Kalla, Allison Harris
Areas of Concentration:  American politics; state and local politics; public policy; political behavior; quantitative methodology
Email:   nicholas.ottone@yale.edu

Melissa Pavlik

Dissertation:  Producing Precarity: The Coercive Logic of Selective State Enforcement
Personal Website:  www.melissapavlik.com
Departmental Profile:  https://politicalscience.yale.edu/people/melissa-pavlik
Advisors List:  Katharine Baldwin, Sarah Sunn Bush, Gerard Padró i Miquel, Elisabeth Wood
Areas of Concentration:  Comparative Politics, International Relations, Quantitative Methods, Political Violence, Political Economy
Email:   melissa.pavlik@yale.edu

Ryan Pike

Dissertation:  Greening in Groups: Essays on the Political Geography of Industrial Decarbonization
Personal Website:  https://ryan-pike.github.io/
Departmental Profile:  https://politicalscience.yale.edu/people/ryan-pike
Advisors List:  Sarah Bush, Isabela Mares, Didac Queralt, Luke Sanford
Areas of Concentration:  Climate Politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations, Quantitative Methods
Email:   ryan.pike@yale.edu

Loren Reinoso

Dissertation:  Together We Rule: Representative Authority and Political Agency 
Departmental Profile:  https://politicalscience.yale.edu/people/loren-reinoso
Advisors List:  Hélène Landemore (chair), Bryan Garsten, Ian Shapiro, Stephen Darwall (Department of Philosophy)
Areas of Concentration:  Primary: Political Theory/Philosophy, Secondary: American Politics, Comparative Politics
Email:   loren.reinoso@yale.edu

Chetana Sabnis

Dissertation:  The Intimacy Contract: States and Hierarchies of Belonging
Personal Website: www.chetanasabnis.com
Departmental Profile:  https://politicalscience.yale.edu/people/chetana-sabnis
Advisors List:  Elisabeth Jean Wood, Joe Fischel, Dara Strolovitch, Egor Lazarev
Areas of Concentration:  Comparative Politics
Email:   chetana.sabnis@yale.edu

Sophia Wang

Dissertation:  Activist in Time: From Intense Preferences to Local Political Participation
Personal Website: https://sites.google.com/view/jsophiawang/
Departmental Profile:  https://politicalscience.yale.edu/people/sophia-wang
Advisors List:  P Aronow, Ian Turner, Gerard Padro, Ben Ansell (external)
Areas of Concentration:  Comparative Politics, Urban and Local Politics, Political Behavior, Political Economy, Quantitative Methodology
Email:    jinghong.wang@yale.edu

Isabelle Laurenzi

Dissertation:  The Politics of Breaking Up: Freedom and Ambivalence in Undoing the Ties that Bind
Personal Website:  https://www.isabellelaurenzi.com/
Current position:  Part-Time Faculty, Quinnipiac University (Fall 2025 only)
Advisors List:  Bryan Garsten (Chair), Joseph Fischel, Giulia Oskian
Areas of Concentration:  Political Theory
Email:   isabelle.laurenzi@gmail.com

Colin Moreshead

Dissertation:  Mediating Power: How Hybrid Media Disrupts Elite Messaging in Japan
Personal Website:  https://www.colinmoreshead.com/
Current position:  Postdoctoral Fellow at the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University
Departmental Profile: https://politicalscience.yale.edu/people/colin-moreshead
Advisors List:  Daniel Mattingly, Yusaku Horiuchi, Charles McClean
Areas of Concentration:  Political Communication, Comparative Politics
Email:   colin.moreshead@yale.edu

Deepika Padmanabhan

Dissertation:  Everyday Language: Navigating the State and the Nation in Southern India
Personal Website: www.deepikapadmanabhan.com
Current position:  Postdoctoral Fellow, Weatherhead Scholars Program, Harvard University
Advisors List:  Steven Wilkinson (Chair), Kate Baldwin, Sarah Khan, Alex Coppock
Areas of Concentration:  Comparative Politics, Political Economy
Email:   deepikapadmanabhan@fas.harvard.edu

Ariel Yingqi Tang

Dissertation:  Bildung and the Anthropological Foundation of Politics
Personal Website:  https://civics.stanford.edu/people/ariel-yingqi-tang
Current position:   Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford Civics Initiative, Stanford University
Advisors List:  Bryan Garsten, Isaac Nakhimovsky, Steven Smith
Areas of Concentration:  Political Theory
Email:   yqtang@stanford.edu