As the job market gets underway, we are proud to highlight our exceptional graduate students who are on the academic job market for the first time this year.
Taylor J. Damann’s research uncovers relationships between political violence, gender norms, and their enduring legacies. Her expertise spans Eastern Europe and Russo-Ukrainian relations, though her research has covered Israel, the United States, and Europe more broadly as well. She has had the privilege of already publishing her work in several leading journals, including International Organization, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Comparative Political Studies. Her dissertation examines how collective trauma from violence influences patterns of civilian mobilization during conflict. Namely, she focuses on civilian willingness to materially assist armed groups, such as providing weapons and money to the cause.
Dahjin Kim is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis. My research focuses on various forms of political communication through online channels, with a particular interest in misinformation and its correction within online communities. My dissertation project studies how leveraging online group identities can result in effective correction of misinformation among online community users. I also study political communication more broadly with a particular interest on elite communication behaviors and public opinion on social media. Methodologically, I adopt a multi-method approach, including computational methods (text-as-data), survey experiments, design-based causal inference, and qualitative fieldwork. My research has been supported by the APSA Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant and has been published at International Organization, American Journal of Political Science, and Journal of Theoretical Politics. Before beginning my Ph.D. program, I earned an M.A. in Political Science and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Seoul National University.
Gechun Lin is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science, with a joint A.M. in Statistics, at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research lies at the intersection of computational social science and American politics, with a focus on leveraging advanced natural language processing (NLP) models and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to measure political concepts using diverse text corpora. Her dissertation, which includes a job market paper accepted at American Journal of Political Science (AJPS), introduces innovative embedding techniques for more accurate measurement of text similarity, regardless of length or word overlap. Additionally, she develops a novel framework that employs prompt engineering and large language models to facilitate qualitative content analysis. Gechun's substantive interests include political communication and law & politics, as reflected in her applied research projects that explore elite and mass polarization, media framing of Supreme Court decisions, and party messaging discipline in the U.S. Congress.
Annamaria Prati is a PhD candidate in political science at Washington University in St. Louis. Annamaria broadly studies how the international community supports fragile states using mixed methods and novel datasets. Her dissertation examines the effects of peacebuilding projects led by the United Nations Development Programme on local governance around the world, including studies featuring field work in Nepal, computational social science, and machine learning methods. Before attending WashU, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with honors from Stanford University, earning a bachelor’s degree in international relations. She also holds master’s degrees from the University of Chicago and Columbia University. Her work has been supported by the Washington University’s Center for Race, Ethnicity, and Equity and the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy.
Taylor J. Damann’s research uncovers relationships between political violence, gender norms, and their enduring legacies. Her expertise spans Eastern Europe and Russo-Ukrainian relations, though her research has covered Israel, the United States, and Europe more broadly as well. She has had the privilege of already publishing her work in several leading journals, including International Organization, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Comparative Political Studies. Her dissertation examines how collective trauma from violence influences patterns of civilian mobilization during conflict. Namely, she focuses on civilian willingness to materially assist armed groups, such as providing weapons and money to the cause.
Dahjin Kim is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis. My research focuses on various forms of political communication through online channels, with a particular interest in misinformation and its correction within online communities. My dissertation project studies how leveraging online group identities can result in effective correction of misinformation among online community users. I also study political communication more broadly with a particular interest on elite communication behaviors and public opinion on social media. Methodologically, I adopt a multi-method approach, including computational methods (text-as-data), survey experiments, design-based causal inference, and qualitative fieldwork. My research has been supported by the APSA Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant and has been published at International Organization, American Journal of Political Science, and Journal of Theoretical Politics. Before beginning my Ph.D. program, I earned an M.A. in Political Science and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Seoul National University.
Gechun Lin is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science, with a joint A.M. in Statistics, at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research lies at the intersection of computational social science and American politics, with a focus on leveraging advanced natural language processing (NLP) models and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to measure political concepts using diverse text corpora. Her dissertation, which includes a job market paper accepted at American Journal of Political Science (AJPS), introduces innovative embedding techniques for more accurate measurement of text similarity, regardless of length or word overlap. Additionally, she develops a novel framework that employs prompt engineering and large language models to facilitate qualitative content analysis. Gechun's substantive interests include political communication and law & politics, as reflected in her applied research projects that explore elite and mass polarization, media framing of Supreme Court decisions, and party messaging discipline in the U.S. Congress.
Annamaria Prati is a PhD candidate in political science at Washington University in St. Louis. Annamaria broadly studies how the international community supports fragile states using mixed methods and novel datasets. Her dissertation examines the effects of peacebuilding projects led by the United Nations Development Programme on local governance around the world, including studies featuring field work in Nepal, computational social science, and machine learning methods. Before attending WashU, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with honors from Stanford University, earning a bachelor’s degree in international relations. She also holds master’s degrees from the University of Chicago and Columbia University. Her work has been supported by the Washington University’s Center for Race, Ethnicity, and Equity and the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy.