Students

Doctoral Candidate

Email: kevinjangell@uchicago.edu  |  Website

Kevin is studying American congressional and executive politics. He is especially interested in how political institutions shape behavior and the role of political staff and government bureaucracy. His work is primarily empirical. Kevin was awarded the NSF GFRP in 2024. 

Email: shiyan@uchicago.edu 

Shiyan is interested in applying game theory to study comparative politics. More specifically: non-democratic politics, democratization, and post-communist transition are her focused research areas. Before coming to Chicago, she completed her undergraduate at the Zhejiang University in International Relations and masters in Political Science and Political Economy at the London School of Economics. 

Email: aevert@uchicago.edu

Alex is primarily interested in using game theory to study problems in American politics. His current research agenda is broadly focused on the politics of information and the electoral relationship between parties, candidates, and voters.

Doctoral Candidate

Email: farace@uchicago.edu  |  Website

Giorgio's research is in formal theory and comparative politics. Currently, his work focuses on rationalist explanations for collective punishment and collective responsibility. His interests also include accountability under manipulated elections and social choice theory. 

Email: agorbuntsova@uchicago.edu

Alena is excited about empirical analysis of political and judicial systems of autocracies, primarily Russia. She received her master's degree in Economics from the New Economic School in 2024 and her bachelor's degree in Economics from Moscow State University in 2022.

Email: divijs@uchicago.edu

Divij is currently interested in Indian urban politics, and the impact of proposed changes like redrawing district boundaries, reapportionment between the states, an increase in the number of seats, and the implementation of women's reservation on Indian elections. He has previously worked at the intersection of urban policy research and practice across themes like transit, property taxation and ownership, domestic work, employment, maternal health, and migration.

Email: swatling@uchicago.edu

Sam Watling is a quantitative political economist and formal theorist with a focus in housing and urban politics. His research interests include the political determinants of zoning restrictions in urban areas and the impact of property ownership of voting patterns and the provision of local public goods.

Email: yuehaoyang@uchicago.edu

Yuehao’s substantive research interests center on relationships among state actors, accountability, bureaucracy, and political polarization. He also has an interest in research methodology. 

Email: hongding@uchicago.edu

Hongding’s substantive research interests focus on institutional transition, bureaucracy, and non-democracies. His methodological interests center on applied game theory and combining formal models with historical materials.

Email: jintao@uchicago.edu

Jintao’s research interest lies in the interaction between informal and formal institutions, with particular emphasis on legal systems and their implications for development. He holds a BSc from the London School of Economics and a MPhil from the University of Cambridge.