Governance / Democracy

Research Interest

Sean Gailmard

Professor
Political Science

Sean Gailmard is a professor of political science at UC Berkeley. He studies institutional development from a strategic perspective. His recent research focuses on historical political economy, particularly strategic dilemmas of governance in early modern empires.

Andres Rodriguez Clare

Professor
Economics

Andrés Rodríguez-Clare is the Edward G. and Nancy S. Jordan Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in the International Trade and Investment group and Research Fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Prof. Rodríguez-Clare studies how globalization affects welfare, inequality, employment and the environment.

David Grewal

Professor of Law
Jurisprudence and Social Policy, Berkeley Law School

David Singh Grewal is Professor of Law at Berkeley Law School and a member of the Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program. His first book, Network Power: The Social Dynamics of Globalization (Yale, 2008) offered an analysis of globalization. He teaches and writes on international law, including international economic law and international legal theory, among other topics.

Matthew Specter

Senior Fellow
Institute of European Studies

Matthew Specter (PhD, Duke) writes on 20th century European, American and global intellectual history, especially the history of German political thought and the history of IR theory. A former tenured Associate Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University, he is currently a Lecturer in History at Santa Clara University and Associate Editor of History and Theory. He is the author of Habermas: An Intellectual Biography (Cambridge 2010) and The Atlantic Realists: Empire and International Political Thought Between Germany and...

Ali Hasan

Undergraduate Student
Political Science
Rhetoric

Ali Hasan is in his third-year pursuing a B.A. in Political Science with a concentration in Comparative Politics and a minor in Rhetoric. His interests include constitutional law, failed states, postcolonial politics, political theory, and the intersection of rhetoric and politics. Hasan is also involved with the City of Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission, UC Berkeley’s model UN team, and political publications centered around international relations and human rights. After graduation, he hopes to pursue law school and learn more about criminal justice reform and public interest law...

Ben Harper

Undergraduate Student
Political Science
Music

Ben Harper is a senior pursuing a B.A. in Political Science and Music. His academic interests include early to modern political theory and comparative political economy. Since January 2020, he has served as a research assistant to Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus David Collier, assisting with writing, editing, and researching scholarly work on the critical junctures methodology in Political Science. He is currently conducting research on contemporary populism and globalization using this framework. He has also interned at the Oakland Mayor’s Office, where he conducted research on policies...

Krish Gopalan

Undergraduate Student
Molecular and Cell Biology
Public Health
Global Poverty and Practice

Krish Gopalan is a fourth-year student at UC Berkeley from Southern California. He is pursuing a B.A. Molecular and Cell Biology and minoring in both Global Public Health and Global Poverty and Practice. His interests broadly include the politics of health and development in the Global South, especially in South Asia. His prior research includes analyses into the effectiveness of the Integrated Rural Development Program and the role of private-public partnerships in developing health infrastructure in India. At Berkeley, he was involved with the California Public Interest Research Group,...

Adrian Frias

Undergraduate Fellow
Geography
Ethnic Studies
Education

Adrian Frias (he/him) is a junior from Carson, California, pursuing a double major in Geography and Ethnic Studies with a minor in Education. His research interests include environmental justice, immigration, public transportation, energy policy, city planning, and race/ethnicity. Previously, Frias has gained experience doing research on his hometown's oil refineries. He has worked as a legal/communications intern for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and currently works as a peer academic counselor for Berkeley's Educational Opportunity Program (EOP). In the near...

Luis Hassan Gallardo

Undergraduate Student
Political Science
Ethnic Studies

Luis Hassan Gallardo is a senior from Los Angeles, CA, majoring in Political Science and Ethnic Studies. He is interested in how his fields of study intersect with issues of international affairs and migration policy. Luis is also currently working with Sociology Professor Cybelle Fox to conduct historical analyses of the United States Sanctuary Movement and the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative to map immigrant health and legal clinics in California. After graduation, he hopes to continue his work on immigration advocacy, policy, and research before applying to law school....

Louise Curtis

Undergraudate Student
History

Louise Curtis is a senior majoring in History with a minor in French. She is interested in early modern intellectual history and the history of political thought, especially as it relates to common people. Since March 2019 Louise has worked as a research assistant to David Collier, Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Political Science, on his Critical Junctures project. She assists with research, editing, and writing on American electoral history and methodology in political science for his forthcoming book.