Research Opportunities
Undergraduates can take advantage of opportunities to participate in the latest research happening in the world of political science. Gov92r allows you to conduct research in the Government department for academic credit. It is graded SAT/UNSAT. If you are interested in any of these projects, please contact the supervisors directly. You will need to submit the Gov 92r form (available here) to Karen Kaletka before you can register for the course on my.harvard.
Spring 2026
Prof. Daniel Carpenter
The Political Economy of Wargaming
States learn by observing history, but they also engage in practices of systematic speculation to generate “data” of a different kind: various scenarios for how conflict might play out in the future. States do this most commonly in military settings, but also increasingly do so in cybersecurity and terrorism insurance. The rise of artificial intelligence may enhance these exercises by applying unprecedented computational power to the interactions and to possible scenarios. Professor Carpenter seeks collaborators to examine the literature on wargaming and to examine how different government agencies and non-profit organizations structure the activity. What is the proper scale of wargaming activity, as in, much scenario generation should be applied to particular threats? (Or, do “we” do too little of this activity or too much?) What are the most important scenarios to model? How does wargaming affect decision-making? The aim will be to inform a general analysis of how wargaming can assist governments, insurers and regulators in examining AI risk, but there may be other applications as well.
Prerequisites (courses and/or methodological skills): no prerequisites.
Contact: If you’re interested, send a CV and a short paragraph on why this project interests you to: dcarpenter@gov.harvard.edu
Prof. Jennifer Hochschild
Politics of Social Uses of Genomic Science in Three Countries
My project examines political and policy choices regarding genetic and genomic technologies in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany. The central goal is to analyze how and why specified technological developments are associated with – both transforming and being transformed by – a country’s practices, values, and institutions. I will examine, for example, 1) the role of the shadow of eugenics and surveillance in Germany’s bitter debates and cautious legislation regarding genetic ancestry testing and DNA phenotyping, 2) the role of the “civil religion” of the National Health Service in Britain’s unusually strong focus on equity issues in making choices about genomic testing and treatment, and 3) the role of religious commitments and organizations in Americans’ relatively acrimonious debates over abortion, IVF, and PGD.
Prerequisites (courses and/or methodological skills): some knowledge of genomic science and its societal uses or technological development would be ideal. Knowledge of 1) public opinion databases, 2) how to access government documents, including outside the US; 3) German; and/or 4) more generally, use of databases to find media publications, scholarly articles, and other sources would be great.
Contact: If you’re interested, send a CV and a short paragraph on why this project interests you to: hochschild@gov.harvard.edu
Prof. Mashail Malik
The Gender Dimension of Immigrant Incorporation
This project examines whether and how gendered experiences shape the social and political incorporation of foreign-born immigrants in the United States.
Prerequisites (courses and/or methodological skills): Familiarity with conducting in-depth literature reviews
Contact: If you’re interested, send a CV and a short paragraph on why this project interests you to: mashailmalik@fas.harvard.edu