ANGIE JO

I am a PhD Candidate in Political Science at MIT, specializing in comparative  and American political economy.  I study social policy, crisis governance, public administration, and institutional change in the advanced industrialized democracies.  

My dissertation, The Crisis Welfare State: The Liberal Paradox in Governance of Collective Risks, examines why minimal welfare regimes like the United States respond to collective crises—such as pandemics, financial collapses, and natural disasters—with massive but short-lived surges of emergency social spending.  I seek to understand  the political and institutional conditions under which these temporary interventions evolve into lasting welfare state expansions, or fade as short-term relief.

My work has been generously supported by the National Science Foundation/APSA Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Doctoral Scholarship, the Consortium on the American Political Economy, the Oxford Global Priorities Institute, and a Presidential Graduate Fellowship at MIT.  I have received the APSA Section Prize for Best Paper in American Political Economy and the NEPSA Robert C. Wood Prize for Best Paper Written by a Graduate Student.

I hold a BA in History of Art and Architecture summa cum laude from Harvard and a Master of City Planning degree from MIT.  Prior to my PhD, I worked in investment at Bridgewater Associates.  I love running, horseback riding, salsa dancing, and my American bully puppy Luna.  I grew up between Seoul, California, and Vancouver 🇨🇦.