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 2026-2027 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 2026
September 4: No meeting (APSA)
September 11: Introductions
September 18: Yehzee Ryoo (UW-Madison)
Practice job talk
September 25: Saloni Bhogale (UW-Madison)
Practice job talk
October 2: Evgeniia Mitrokhina (UW-Madison)
Practice job talk
October 9: Bikram Karmakar (UW-Madison)
October 16: EPW Pilot Grant Presentations
October 23: Andy Halterman (Michigan State University)
October 30: Laura Hatfield (NORC)
November 6: Open
November 13: Joe Ornstein (University of Georgia)
November 20: Reserved
November 27: No meeting (Thanksgiving)
December 4: Graduate Student Poster Session
SPRING 2026
January 23: No meeting
January 30: No meeting
February 6: Cody-Ann Lyn (UW-Madison)
Topic: The Case of Echo Chambers: Examining User Sensitivity to Social Media Company Efforts to Depolarize Platforms
February 13: Peter Rich (UW-Madison, Sociology)
Topic: Backlash or Inertia? A Micro-Macro Analysis of White Population Loss in Desegregating City School Districts, 1970-1990
February 20: Marty Davidson (UW-Madison)
Topic: Random Summations across Adaptive Catchment Zones
February 27: Cyrus Samii (New York University)
Topic: Inference for Group Interaction Experiments
March 6: Jacob Montgomery (Washington University in St. Louis)
Topic: Structured Flexibility: Gaussian Process Regression as a Complement to Linear Models in Political Science
March 13: Ale Aponte (Mathematica) [CANCELLED]
Topic: Evaluation of the Ghana II Power Compact: Final Report for the ECG Financial and Operational Turnaround Project and Energy Efficiency and Demand Side Management Project
March 20: EPW Pilot Grant Competition
March 27: Ye Wang (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Topic: Understanding Shift-Share Designs from the Perspective of Interference
April 3: No meeting (Spring Break)
April 10: Yuki Shiraito (University of Michigan)
Topic: Paragraph-Citation Topic Models for Semantically Interpreting Citations in Document Network
April 17: Adam Glynn (Emory)
Topic: Estimating Bounds on Selection Bias with Outcomes Measured on the Selected
Location: 120 Ingraham Hall
April 24: No meeting (MPSA)
May 1: Agustina Paglayan (UCSD)
Topic: Indoctrination for Democracy
Co-sponsored with the Political Economy Colloquium (PEC)
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).