Fellow Testimonials

Bastian Herre - 2020-21 Lloyd & Susanne Rudolph Field Research Grant Fellow 

Interview by Tessa Webb

1. Your work at Our World in Data spans critical issues like human rights, democracy, and conflict. How do you prioritize topics, and what criteria do you use to determine which data or narratives to focus on?

We prioritize the world’s largest problems and biggest challenges. What does that mean? It could be problems that impact many countries or many people, but challenges can also be heavily concentrated in specific areas and are geographically concentrated, having profound implications, such as conflicts or malnutrition. For instance, while malnutrition is not a global issue in every sense, it affects significant populations in certain regions. We also focus on areas where measurable progress is within reach, like agriculture. The idea is to tackle problems where actionable change is possible while ensuring the data remains accessible to those who can act on it.

2. You've recently published articles on women's political advances and LGBT+ rights. What key insights or surprising trends did you uncover during your research on these topics?
On women's political advances, it’s clear that major strides have been made but the world is still far from equal. There’s substantial variation by region – some areas are making progress while others stagnate. For LGBT+ rights, dozens of countries have expanded protections, but the majority of the world still doesn’t recognize these rights at all. These topics underscore how far we’ve come and how much work remains, especially in bridging legal protections and social realities globally.

3. Your background in political economy and comparative politics gives you a broad perspective. How do you integrate these disciplines into your research on redistributive policies and political institutions?
My work is heavily influenced by my background, especially when it comes to understanding political constraints. For instance, we think about the political barriers to technology adoption or why some countries fail to sustain an open intellectual environment. Our research team is small—just 10 people—so we concentrate on specific areas like human rights, democracy, violence, and war. These topics naturally align with what I’ve done in education, but I’ve also expanded my focus by delving deeper into the dynamics of violence and war.

4. You've taught courses in political economy, comparative politics, and political methodology. How has your teaching influenced your research, and how do you ensure your academic work remains accessible to students?
I really enjoyed teaching and still do—sometimes in a literal sense, like teaching at Oxford last year. But I’ve also come to see teaching in a broader way, as making data easier to access and understand. Accessibility is crucial. We take visualizations very seriously. It’s not enough to create narrative reports; we design interactive charts that invite users to engage with the data and answer their own questions. Of course, there’s a risk of oversimplification, so we work hard to refine our writing—cutting out technical jargon while staying true to the data. It’s a constant balance.

5. As someone who has worked extensively in both qualitative and quantitative research, how do you balance these approaches in your work? Do you have a preference for one over the other when tackling certain research questions?
I wouldn’t say I prefer one approach over the other—it really depends on the question. Quantitative methods are essential for long-term tracking and analyzing large datasets, but qualitative research provides the depth and nuance that numbers alone can’t capture. Integrating both approaches often leads to the most robust insights.

6. Your work on the COVID-19 pandemic was recently published in Lancet Public Health. What were the most significant challenges in this project, and how do you see the findings influencing public policy?
One of the biggest challenges was writing the article in a way that was legible to government agencies. We asked ourselves, ‘How can we make this work easy to use?’ For example, we ensure our data isn’t hidden behind paywalls, use a permissive license so others can reuse it, and provide files in accessible formats like plain CSVs instead of spreadsheets. The goal is always to think about the end user—what they need to take the data and make their own insights or decisions

7. You mentioned being excited about upcoming work on famines. What new perspectives or data do you hope to bring to this topic, and how do you anticipate this research will contribute to addressing current global challenges?
Famines are a timely topic again, unfortunately. We’re looking at general malnutrition as well as acute episodes of malnutrition that lead to more deaths and make diseases more severe. Our perspective is the classic Our World in Data approach: using a long-term dataset that is regularly updated. Famines are rarer now, but progress is still uneven, and recent famines have occurred even in the last few decades. Raising awareness is crucial.

8. Reflecting on your research journey this past year, what experiences or challenges have most significantly shaped your approach or redirected your focus?
I expected to do a postdoc, but instead, I ended up in an alt-academic position at Our World in Data. It was unexpected, but I have no regrets. The transition has been different—in academia, I had the freedom to pursue my own research agenda, but here, I contribute to a broader mission. It’s been rewarding to focus on making the best data accessible to the broader public. That shift—from writing for 20-25 experts during my PhD to reaching a much bigger audience—has been one of the most significant changes.

9. Considering your extensive experience in both academic and applied research, what advice would you give to emerging scholars in political science who wish to make a tangible impact through their work?
Always ask yourself: ‘Is this accessible and understandable?’ It’s great to produce high-quality research, but if downloading your files is a nightmare or your writing is too dense, it won’t reach the people who could benefit most. Make your data easy to use, provide accompanying documentation, and think about how to invite people into your research. Social media can be a powerful tool—it’s not for everyone, but finding ways to connect with your audience is essential.

10. Looking forward, what are some emerging trends or areas in political economy and comparative politics that you believe will become increasingly important for researchers to explore?
Emerging areas include the political constraints of technology, governance in autocratic regimes, and the dynamics of global inequality. Climate change and migration will also play increasingly central roles, especially in how they intersect with redistributive policies and political stability.

Elizabeth Hines, PhD - 2021-22 Lloyd & Susanne Rudolph Field Research Grant Fellow 

Interview by Tessa Webb

1. Congratulations on finishing your PhD! How has your experience at the University of Chicago shaped your academic interests and research focus? 
 
Thank you! I am so grateful for my time at the University of Chicago, particularly the vibrant and growing community of scholars studying the early modern period. The university's workshop culture encourages these scholars to share their work regularly and keep abreast of each other's new findings. I enjoyed participating in the British and Imperial Workshop, the Early Modern and Mediterranean Worlds Workshop, the Empires Forum, the History and Social Sciences Forum, the History and Theory of Capitalism Workshop, and the Renaissance Workshop during my time at Chicago. I think that these workshops help structure the PhD program more than people realize, since they create incentives for students to produce chapter drafts at a regular pace so that they can share them at workshops. I found that this system worked better for me than that of collecting research for several years, then trying to write it up into chapters all during the final year. I also found that the feedback I received at workshops helped determine the direction of new chapters, as the other students and professors were always most interested in the imperial elements of the Anglo-Dutch story I was researching. They encouraged me to dig further into the joint nature of the imperial projects in the Anglo-Dutch sphere. 

2. Reflecting on your time as a PhD student, what advice would you give to current and prospective graduate students in the field of history? 

My main piece of advice is to seek feedback early and often. I struggled to show others my work when I was starting out, knowing that it wasn't very good yet, but I was only able to improve when I got up the courage to share drafts and revise them based on others' comments. Relatedly, a professor gave me the advice years ago that "if you're not getting rejected, you're not applying for enough things," which has always served me well. I apply for every opportunity I find to share my work and get feedback, and I also apply for grants and fellowships at every archive I want to visit. (I annoy my friends by sending them calls for papers and grants relevant to their topics all the time.) I have never regretted applying for anything, but I have regretted many instances of choosing not to do so for one reason or another. Getting practice handling rejection also helps with the move from applying for grants and conferences to submitting articles to journals and applying for postdocs and jobs. 

3. Can you tell us more about your upcoming postdoc at Johns Hopkins? What specific projects or goals do you have for this fellowship? 

I will be an Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kissinger Center at Johns Hopkins SAIS. The postdoc is part of a consortium with the Centre for Geopolitics at Cambridge, the Centre for Grand Strategy at King’s College London, and the Center for Statecraft and Strategic Communication at the Stockholm School of Economics. To help the postdoctoral fellows focus on our work's relevance to today's world, the program includes opportunities to present our work to audiences beyond our small research areas. A former participant told me that this focus on relevance helped him to hone his argument and turn his dissertation into a book with much wider appeal. With his experience as an example, I'm looking forward to working on my book manuscript and examining further why trans-imperial projects four hundred years ago matter to our understanding of the world today. There are also specific new research questions I am excited to pursue, including why England and the Netherlands combined their East India Companies in 1619 and why Dutchmen led the North American colony of New Sweden. 

4. You’ve received several fellowships and awards this year. How have these opportunities influenced your research, and what impact do you hope to achieve with the support of these fellowships? 
 
I would like to thank the Cromwell Association, Florida Atlantic University, the Huntington Library, the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium, the Omohundro Institute, and the University of Chicago Forum on Free Inquiry and Expression for supporting my research in 2024. Their support facilitated research trips to England, France, and the Netherlands that helped me complete my dissertation. I had previously collected lots of material on Dutch loans to combatants in the English Civil Wars, but documents I read at the English National Archives this spring made me stop to acknowledge a trend of Dutch merchants loaning money to both king and Parliament, sometimes at the same time. Why would they support both sides of a war in this way, when it was likely that one or both sides would be unable to repay them?  

Further research convinced me that the merchants did so because the financial and imperial privileges they could gain outweighed the losses they would incur. Their choice to invest in the English wars built on their experience investing in projects with the Swedish and English crowns, which included fen drainage, copper mining, and trading ventures around the world. The same strategy helps explain why some English and Dutch merchants invested in multiple companies, sometimes affiliated with different governments, that competed for trading rights in the same locations. The prize was the privileges they gained, which could range from trade monopolies to titles of nobility in new lands around the world. I found that the quest for these privileges eventually contributed to Dutch support of the royalist cause in England. I am looking forward to upcoming research trips in the US that will help me bring forward the North American elements of these financial and imperial relationships as I work to turn the dissertation into a book.  

5. What are some of your favorite historical sources or archives that you’ve worked with, and why do they stand out to you? 

I am so grateful to the Stadsarchief Amsterdam, the Stadsarchief Rotterdam, and the Zeeuws Archief for preserving and cataloging their early modern notarial records, and for digitizing many of them. Most of the evidence I have for Dutch loans to different groups in England comes from these collections. I was particularly excited to find a system of Dutch loans to the English crown moving through middlemen who farmed the English customs on tin. The loans were notarized as going to these Englishmen, so I didn't originally realize their final destination, but the amounts were so large, in the hundreds of thousands of guilders, or tens of thousands of pounds, that I kept coming back to them. Months later, I found the same men loaning similar sums of money to Charles I in the English treasury records. The Dutch notaries always recorded the interest rate of the loans in their books, so I was able to see that the middlemen were profiting from the system by receiving 8% in interest from the king, but only paying about 5% in interest in the Netherlands. These loans were part of a larger structure of Dutch money that helped Charles build the apparatus of his government and allowed him to continue to rule without Parliament throughout the 1630s. 

Another of my favorite sources is the letters and proposals of the Dutchman Willem Usselincx, one of the early proponents of a Dutch West India Company. His writings are always fun because he was so blunt about his motivations. When the West India Company plans finally came to fruition, he wrote that they must "ensure... that all resolutions and actions aim to ensure that the benefit of the company, the prosperity of the republic and the harm of the King of Spain were promoted and held in recommendation together." He wanted the Netherlands to profit, and he wanted to hurt the king of Spain, and he was very clear that these goals could be met jointly by attacking the Spanish possessions in the West Indies. He was soon disappointed that the West India Company was not more aggressive in working toward these goals. The New York Public Library holds on microfilm a manuscript proposal of his for a new trading company, in which he suggested that the Netherlands could form the company with Sweden, and possibly also with France. They could then attack the West Indies, an urgent task because he feared that recent resource extraction had made Philip IV, the king of Spain, "now richer than ever." He cared about the Protestant cause and about making money, and he found these perfectly compatible with each other. 
 
6. What are the broader implications of your research on early modern trans-imperial ventures for our understanding of global economic and political history? 

Investigating the heavy Dutch investment in the English government and the joint Anglo-Dutch imperial ventures of the seventeenth century affect our ideas of sovereignty and empire in this period. Some Anglo-Dutch ventures worked closely with the governments of England and the Netherlands, while others were more independent, but all of them included an element of collaboration across states. The projects were not begun for the sake of the Netherlands or for the sake of England; their trans-imperial nature shows that their leaders and investors thought of empire not in national terms. Recent scholarship has debated the nature of empire at the beginning of the period of European expansion, particularly in England. Many point to the distance early English ventures kept from the crown, and their leadership by small groups of men, to differentiate them from projects like the British Raj in India in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Considering the multitude of trans-imperial ventures in the early modern period moves this discussion beyond national stories to a more global vision of empire. This research shows that theoretical conceptions of empire need to encompass these early forms of interconnected empire as well as later, more state-based ones. Early forms of imperialism were different from what people often picture when they think of "imperialism" or "colonialism" today, and we need to study them in order to understand fully the nature of empire. 

7. How do you envision your research evolving in the next few years, and what new areas or questions are you interested in exploring? 

I hope to expand from the Anglo-Dutch sphere and explore the interconnections between imperial ventures more broadly from the age of exploration onward. There is a lot of wonderful new research on the role of transnational or cosmopolitan figures who crossed boundaries between empires, often working with multiple different powers over the course of their lives. I would like to investigate the collaborations between different states and projects, which varied widely in scale. On the most official level, the Dutchman Willem Usselincx started the Swedish South Company in 1626 with Dutch funding and both Swedish and Dutch personnel; another Dutchman, Abraham Cabiljau, started the Swedish Shipping Company in 1629, with Dutch funding and personnel; and Dutch and Danish partners, including Louis de Geer, founded the Swedish Africa Company in 1649. At the same time, rulers in Spain, France, the Netherlands, England, and Courland claimed and distributed titles of nobility on the island of Tobago to assorted figures across empires. Much like itinerant projectors, figures like Isaac le Maire, François Caron, and Isaac de Rasieres traveled around Europe proposing trans-imperial ventures to different governments. And on the least official level, a community of Spanish, French, Dutch, and English privateers persisted on the island of Tortuga while it changed hands several times between states back in Europe. I would like to use company and merchant records to investigate what motivated the different kinds of trans-imperial ventures that began in the early modern period. My new project will explore why new trans-imperial projects continued to receive funding even after the development of the great trading companies. 

Carolina Lopez-Ruiz, PhD - CISSR 24-25 Faculty Research Fellow 

Interview by Tessa Webb

Michael Albertus - CISSR 24-25, 2020-21, 2019-2020 Faculty Research Fellow

Interview by Tessa Webb

1. Your research spans various complex topics like political regime transitions, inequality, and land reform. How has your approach to these subjects evolved over the years? What initially inspired you to focus on the political conditions under which governments implement egalitarian reforms?  

I was originally inspired by early fieldwork in Latin America, where I witnessed the promise of democracy falling short on material terms and wanted to understand why. That led me to investigate the historical track record of the reallocation of land in different countries. Over the years, I have come to understand that questions of inequality, democracy, and satisfaction with government are highly interrelated and I have sought to examine them from different angles. 

2. You mentioned that conducting field research in places like South Africa and Patagonia has been particularly inspiring. Could you share any specific insights or experiences from these research trips that have shaped your understanding of land power and its societal implications?  

One experience that was both eye opening and humbling was working with communities in the sugarcane region of northeastern South Africa. Land restitution is fundamental to these communities and has transformed livelihoods and paths of upward mobility. People are struggling with difficult issues and brutal legacies of the past apartheid era every day, and they are doing so with determination and grace. 

3. Your upcoming book, "Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn't, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies," is set to be released in 2025. What key themes or arguments do you hope will resonate most with readers? Were there any challenges or surprises you encountered while writing this book?   

I hope the book makes people recognize that we are all from the land, and many of us have roots in it that are very deep. I learned more about my own family past in immigration and serfdom. I also want people to understand that land has shaped modern society and its deepest problems — from gender inequality to racial hierarchy, poverty, and the environmental crisis — in profound ways, and that making good choices about how to use the land now can help address those problems.   

4. You regularly contribute to public discourse through op-eds and other media. How do you balance the demands of academic research with the need to communicate complex ideas to a broader audience? What do you see as the role of scholars in public debates today?  

Scholars dedicate their time and energy to developing deep expertise, and our public debates and public policies are richer if we share that expertise and apply it to the world around us. We can all play a role in our own ways.  

5. As a professor and Deputy Dean, you play a significant role in mentoring students and young scholars. What advice would you give to those entering the field of political science, particularly those interested in the intersection of democracy, inequality, and conflict?   

Keep an open mind! Take time to explore and see what captivates and fascinates you about the world. And then put that at the center of your study, and see where it takes you. 

6. Have you recently shared your work or ideas through public platforms, such as podcasts, op-eds, interviews, or other media? If so, please provide details and links if available.

Yes, here's a recent op-ed of mine in the NT: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/29/opinion/international-world/venezuela-election-democracy-maduro.html. I have written a number of op-eds for popular media outlets based on my research.

7. Have you made any significant progress or reached milestones in your research in the past year that you would like to share?

My new book, "Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn't, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies" is done and scheduled for Jan 2025 publication with Basic Books.

8. What experiences or challenges have been particularly influential in shaping your research journey this past year? Are there any upcoming projects or goals you are particularly excited about?

Conducting field research in new sites like South Africa and Patagonia has been especially inspiring. I am excited to get the word out about my new book! 

Ryan Cecil Jobson - 2023-24 Monograph Enhancement Fellow

Interview by Tessa Webb

1. Have you made any significant progress or reached milestones in your research in the past year that you would like to share?

Yes, I’m excited to share my first book The Petro-State Masquerade: Oil, Sovereignty, and Power in Trinidad and Tobago, will be published by the University of Chicago Press in December 2024. This book examines the relationship between oil, politics, and identity in Trinidad and Tobago. Additionally, I will be beginning a three-year term as co-editor-in-chief of Transforming Anthropology with Christen Smith, also starting in December 2024.

2. What experiences or challenges have been particularly influential in shaping your research journey this past year? Are there any upcoming projects or goals you are particularly excited about?

One of the most influential experiences this year has been my work on the new edition of Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s Peasants and Capital: Dominica and the World Economy, which will be published by Hau Books in spring 2025. I had taught a course on Trouillot’s work and realized how much it had been neglected —despite being cited frequently, it's rarely read. I felt it was crucial to bring it back into circulation. The new edition will include my introduction and an afterword by Dominican writer and scholar Schuyler Esprit. This project speaks to many of the same questions I explore in my own work, particularly around how peasants are active drivers of national development, challenging the idea that peasants are a "drain" on society.

3. Your research spans a range of critical issues like energy, extractivism, and the climate crisis. How did you first become interested in these topics, and how have they evolved throughout your career?

I didn’t initially set out to study energy or the climate crisis; it’s rooted in my personal background. I was born in upstate New York to parents from Jamaica and Trinidad, and I grew up in New York. My family history ties into extractive industries—my grandfather raised cattle on a bauxite estate, and my great uncle worked as a chemical engineer for a bauxite company. The economic transformations that followed emancipation and the structural adjustments in the Caribbean deeply shaped my early understanding of these issues. I was drawn to Trinidad and the oil industry because it was seen as a success story, escaping the fate of indebtedness many other Caribbean states faced. Over time, however, I realized that this “success” was more complicated and not sustainable in the long run, which pushed me to explore extractivism, labor, and the materiality of oil and gas in greater depth.

4. Congratulations on the forthcoming publication of The Petro-State Masquerade! Can you share more about the process of writing this book and any key insights you gained during your research?

Writing The Petro-State Masquerade was a rewarding process. When I first arrived in the Caribbean, I didn’t have expertise in energy economics or oil and gas, so my fieldwork was motivated by the need to understand the industry better. Initially, Trinidad was seen as a success story because the oil boom in the 1970s provided an avenue of mobility that allowed Afro-Trinidadians to enter the middle class. However, the reality was that the economic bubble burst, and the pathways to upward mobility are no longer open to ordinary people. I also became interested in the ways that government officials and state actors create a “masquerade” of permanence, pretending that declines in oil production could be reversed through policy. In contrast, ordinary people stage their own masquerades, through carnival, organized labor, or protest, to challenge and reframe these narratives.

5. Could you tell us more about your upcoming project, the new edition of Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s Peasants and Capital?

Trouillot’s Peasants and Capital is a crucial text that examines the role of small farmers in the Caribbean and how they were essential to the development of national economies, even though they were often seen as backward or a drain. I realized after teaching a course on his work that this book had been overlooked, despite being frequently cited in academic circles. I’m bringing it back into circulation because it challenges dominant ideas about economic development and discuss Trouillot’s methodological approach of tracing these dynaics from the village level all the way up to multinational corporations, including those based in London, which is a model I want to emphasize. Trouillot’s work also underscored how peasants were not just passive recipients of economic change but active agents in national development, particularly in countries like Dominica and Jamaica. His analysis predicted the challenges that Caribbean nations would face as protected markets were removed, and I want to highlight how his work is still relevant today, especially in terms of understanding the role of small farmers in global economies.

6. What have been the most challenging aspects of your research journey, and how have you addressed them?

One of the biggest challenges has been the issue of time. Ethnographic research requires a lot of time and patience, as much of it is about waiting, building relationships, and finding the right people to talk to to animate your work. It’s not just about collecting data—it’s about long-term fieldwork and being in a place long enough to understand it on a deeper level. Unfortunately, time is a luxury in academia. There’s often pressure to complete projects quickly. For research like mine, a minimum of 12 months in a field site is necessary. It’s also increasingly difficult to secure funding for long-term fieldwork, as funding is much more scarce but is essential for meaningful research.

7. Who have been the most influential mentors or colleagues in your career, and how have they impacted your work?

My undergraduate advisor, Deborah Thomas, introduced me to anthropology. Her work and ideas continue to influence my approach to research. My dissertation advisor, Jafari Allen, shaped my thinking on the intersections of black queerness, affect, and performance, particularly in relation to my work on Trinidad and the Caribbean. Outside of the academy, many of the veteran trade unionists I met during fieldwork played a crucial role in how I think about labor and the oil industry. They taught me that field work is not about extracting data and subjects, but rather about building an intellectual community that is a potent space of learning. Fieldwork itself is a site for the perfection of this intellect. 

8. Reflecting on your academic journey, what advice would you give to early-career researchers and students interested in studying the intersection of energy, sovereignty, and climate?

My advice would be to start by reading widely, even the work of people who fundamentally disagree with you. It’s important to understand the industries you’re studying from multiple perspectives, including those that might not align with your own views. For instance, reading about oil and energy from a geology or financial perspective, rather than just the industry’s social and political dimensions, can provide new insights into how these industries shape economies and societies. Specifically, publications like the Financial Times offer an opportunity to read about work that doesn’t discuss the industry itself. They help you understand the financial mechanisms that sustain these industries and their broader impact on global markets. Also, don’t be confined by your discipline, and try to engage with people outside of academia who have direct experience with the industries you’re studying. Fieldwork should be about building relationships and learning from the community, not just collecting data.

9. What are your immediate research goals, and what upcoming projects are you most excited about?

I’m currently working on a project centered around the papers of CLR James located in Trinidad, London and Columbia. His writings on power, particularly his speeches in the 1970s and 1980s, are a major focus for me as I look at the evolution of power through this time in CLR James’ philosophy. I’m especially interested in how James conceptualized power—not just as something wielded by the state or corporate elites, but as something that can be wielded by ordinary people, particularly through Carnival, which I see as the people’s ability to collectively organize and express themselves. It speaks directly to populations like students, young people and unemployed people to see them take lead in a new stage of Caribbean society. I’ve only recently admitted that this might just be a book project and have been following that impulse ever since! I’m also excited about the new edition of Peasants and Capital coming out in 2025 and a chapter I’m currently working on regarding CLR James' return to Trinidad during a radiation scare in 1958, which I believe has been largely overlooked in scholarship and may have more linkages to the evolution of power.

10. How do you aim to make your research accessible to a broader audience beyond the academic community?

Accessibility presumes a normative reader or audience, but it doesn’t necessarily mean simplifying or dumbing down ideas; it’s about thinking carefully about how to communicate with different audiences. Ideas we engage in are familiar in a vernacular sense. I’ve found that ideas from my work resonate with people outside academia, especially those who have direct experience with the issues I study. For instance, the concept of the "masquerade" isn’t just a theoretical idea—it’s something that people living in the Caribbean are familiar with through practices like Carnival. I think the challenge is less about making academic research accessible and more about recognizing the intellectual sophistication of communities outside of the academy. The real task is to revise and challenge existing theories based on historical misunderstandings, rather than just transmitting theory from academic spaces to the broader public.