Graduate Student Mentor

Juan Campos

Graduate Student
Political Science

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. Campos 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, Campos was a research assistant at CSULB and worked as...

Tara Chandra

Graduate Student
Political Science

Tara Chandra is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on gender and international security, particularly why and how insurgents target women. She is also interested in the causes and consequences of political violence more generally across different contexts.

Anirvan Chowdhury

Graduate Student
Political Science
Center on the Politics of Development

Anirvan Chowdhury 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, Chowdhury 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...

Pranav Gupta

Graduate Student
Political Science

Pranav Gupta 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.

He is also a...

Johnathan Guy

Graduate Student
Political Science

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., Guy 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...

Nicholas Kuipers

Graduate Student
Political Science
Center on the Politics of Development

Nicholas Kuipers joined the Center on the Politics of Development in August 2017. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science at the UC Berkeley. His research interests include comparative politics and political economy, with a particular focus on the origins and consequences of democracy and conflict in Southeast Asia. Nick holds a B.A. in Politics from Oberlin College. Prior to pursuing his Ph.D., he worked as a researcher in Jakarta at SMRC, a local political consulting firm specializing in survey research. In 2014-2015, Kuipers received a Fulbright grant to Indonesia.

Adan Martinez

Graduate Student
Political Science

Adan 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, Martinez 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...

Oren Samet

Graduate Student
Political Science

Oren Samet is pursuing a PhD in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include comparative politics and comparative democratization, with a particular focus on political transitions, parties, and elections in Southeast Asia. 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...

Surili Sheth

Graduate Student
Political Science

Surili Sheth 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,...

Alexander Stephenson

Graduate Student
Political Science

Alexander Stephenson is a PhD Student in the Travers Department of Political Science at UC Berkeley. His primary research interests are military organizations, policing, the determinants of political violence, and causal inference. He is also interested in creating tools to make software easier to use for non-technical political scientists. Stephenson holds a B.A. from the University of Minnesota focused on Political Science and Statistics.

He is also a mentor for the IIS Undergraduate Fellowship Program...