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, and institutional change in advanced industrialized democracies.  

My dissertation, The Liberal Safety Net: State Interventions in Times of Collective Crisis, examines why minimal welfare regimes like the United States respond to collective crises—such as pandemics, financial crashes, 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 reforms, or fade as short-term relief.

My work has been generously supported by the NSF/APSA Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, the Trudeau Foundation Doctoral Scholarship, the Consortium on the American Political Economy, the Oxford Global Priorities Institute, and a Presidential Graduate Fellowship at MIT.  I am affiliated with the Harvard Center for European Studies, and have been a visiting scholar at the WZB Berlin and Copenhagen Business School.

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, and my American bully puppy Luna.  I grew up between Seoul, California, and Vancouver 🇨🇦.

Find my CV here, and reach out at angiejo@mit.edu.