Welcome to the website of the Models, Experiments, and Data workshop (MEAD) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This workshop invites outside speakers, faculty members, and graduate students to present their work and receive feedback. If you’re interested in presenting at MEAD in the 2024-2025 academic school year, please contact the graduate student coordinator. If you would like to be added to the MEAD email list, please contact the graduate student coordinator.
Unless otherwise noted, our meetings are held in person (422 North Hall) on Fridays from 1:30 to 2:45pm.
Our workshop will be actively discussing the presentations and general methods research on the MEAD Slack workspace! If you submit a request to be added to the MEAD listserv, you will be invited to the MEAD Slack as well.
Faculty Directors
Anton Strezhnev (strezhnev@wisc.edu)
Graduate Student Coordinator
Tatiana Cruz (tdacruz@wisc.edu)
What Styles of Presentations Do We Have?
(1) Practice Job Talks: 30-40 minutes presentation, followed by Q&A for 15 min, followed by feedback.
(2) Presentations:
“The Classic”: Similar to invited talks, presenters circulate a working paper and present a more detailed 30-40 minute talk after which there is audience Q&A. Discussants may be requested with enough advance notice.
“The In-Progress”: Designed to support in progress work – such as prospectuses or exploratory phases of projects, these do not require circulating work ahead of time, but are 20-30 minute presentations prefaced with specific requests on the types of feedback that would be most helpful to move the work forward. Q&A to follow.
“The EPW style”: This is primarily meant to support feedback for experimental designs. Presenters circulate a ~5 pg write up prior to the meeting, which attendees are expected to read and prepare comments for the author(s). No formal presentation expected. EPW-style sessions can host two presenters.
(3) Invited Speakers: 30-40 minutes presentation, followed by discussant comments, followed by Q&A.
Fall 2025
September 5: Introductions
2025-2026 MEAD mugs will be distributed to regular attendees at the workshop
September 12: No meeting - APSA
September 19: Saloni Bhogale (UW-Madison)
Practice job talk
Politicians Help Citizens Access Justice: Evidence from India
September 26 (Zoom): Khasan Redjaboev (UW-Madison)
Practice job talk
"State Patriarchy: How Communist Colonialism Shaped Authoritarian Eurasia"
October 3: Ethan vanderWilden (UW-Madison)
Practice job talk
"The past persists: How authoritarian nostalgia and far right success reinforce one another"
October 10: Anton Strezhnev (UW-Madison)
"A Guide to Dynamic Difference-in-Differences Regressions for Political Scientists"
October 17: EPW Pilot Grant Recap
Education Building - Room L138
October 24: Alex Coppock (Northwestern University)
Topic: TBD.
October 31: Ale Aponte (Mathematica)
Topic: TBD.
November 6 (Thursday): Gemma Dipoppa (Columbia University)
The talk will take place during the Comparative Politics Colloquium.
Co-sponsored with Comparative Politics Colloquium and the Political Economy Colloquium (PEC)
November 7: Oliver Lang (UW-Madison)
Practice job talk
"Media market competition and propaganda in autocracies"
November 10 (Monday - APW): Andrew Trexler (UW-Madison)
"New Evidence and Design Considerations for Repeated Measure Experiments in Survey Research"
The talk will take place during the American Politics Colloquium at North Hall.
12PM - 1:15PM.
November 13 (Thursday): Melody Huang (Yale)
The talk will take place during the the Stats Colloquium at the Morgridge Hall.
1pm - 2516 Morgridge Hall
November 21: Felix Elwert (UW-Madison)
November 28: No meeting - Thanksgiving Recess
December 5: Poster Session
SPRING 2026
January 23:
January 30:
February 6:
February 13:
February 20: Marty Davidson (UW-Madison)
February 27: Cyrus Samii (New York University)
March 6: Jacob Montgomery (Washington University in St. Louis)
March 13: EPW Pilot Grant
March 20:
March 27: No meeting - Spring Break
April 3: No meeting - Spring Break
April 10: Yuki Shiraito (University of Michigan)
April 17: Adam Glynn (Emory)
April 24:
May 1:
We are part of a rich network of workshops and colloquia: American Politics Workshop (APW), International Relations Colloquium (IRC), Comparative Politics Colloquium (CPC), Political Theory Workshop (PTW), Political Economy Colloquium (PEC), Experimental Politics Workshop (EPW), European Politics Workshop, Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP), and Latin American Colloquium (LAC), and Diversity, Equity, Justice and Power (DEJP).