The Harvard Data Science Initiative (HDSI) is delighted to introduce Bailey Flanigan, a 2024 Wojcicki Troper HDSI Postdoctoral Fellow. The HDSI Postdoctoral Fellows Program provides data science researchers with the opportunity to pursue their research goals in an intellectually diverse and vibrant community with ample mentorship. These independent researchers engage in collaborations with fellows and faculty across all schools at Harvard University.
Bailey Flanigan
Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School
“HDSI’s broad set of affiliated faculty will allow me to explore a diverse set of connections between my past and future research, helping me more firmly set my research agenda going forward.”
Bailey Flanigan, 2024 Wojcicki Troper HDSI Postdoctoral Fellow
Bailey received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in 2024, advised by Ariel Procaccia, and a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from University of Wisconsin Madison in 2017. After completing her undergraduate studies, Bailey worked as a data and computer science researcher at the Yale University Department of Economics, Drexel University, and in the eastern cape of South Africa.
Bailey pursued her Ph.D. in an entirely computer science-focused department at CMU, but she is fundamentally motivated by applications in political science. In her research, unique challenges arise when drawing insights from the computer science and political science fields. Bailey looks forward to joining HDSI’s interdisciplinary community to learn how to address these challenges and to discover new ways to synthesize knowledge when leveraging both disciplines.
“HDSI’s broad set of affiliated faculty – [for example], Gary King – will allow me to explore a diverse set of connections between my past and future research, helping me more firmly set my research agenda going forward,” said Bailey.
During Bailey’s fellowship, she will be hosted by Archon Fung, Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government, in the Ash Center at the Harvard Kennedy School.
“The Ash Center offers the immersion in political science I’m looking for, providing many collaborative events and resources where fellows and other members can engage with ongoing research,” said Bailey.
Bailey studies democratic processes that facilitate direct public participation and representation in policymaking. Using methods from algorithms, social choice, and political science, her work contributes deployable tools for supporting existing processes, as well as computational, empirical, and theoretical frameworks for analyzing their impacts.
During her HDSI fellowship, Bailey plans to comprehensively study statistical methods and explore how they are used across social science. She is excited to immerse herself in the field of political science to obtain a better understanding the field’s language, standard methodologies, and dominant schools of thought.
The two-year HDSI Postdoctoral Fellowship will serve as a crucial step in her preparation to start as a professor of computer science and political science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in autumn of 2025.
“As a professor, I want to study topics like representation, public opinion, polarization, public trust, and public participation in government,” said Bailey.
Bailey hopes to support the movement towards increasing direct participation in democratic governance by conducting research and participating in pro-bono consulting with non-profit organizations and civil society groups. Additionally, she aspires to forge new connections between computer science and political science through her research and teaching.