Stanford University


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  • Luca Bellodi

    Luca Bellodi

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Political Science

    BioLuca Bellodi is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University. His current research focuses on American political institutions, specifically the interaction between politics, bureaucracy, and populism, and its consequences for the quality of government.

    In Bellodi’s primary line of research, he studies politicians’ incentives to control the behavior of bureaucratic agencies, lawmakers’ reliance on bureaucratic expertise, and the role of bureaucracy in shaping the political agenda. He introduces innovative measurement strategies that combine natural language processing techniques and machine learning to address novel questions in the study of oversight, rulemaking, and the use of information in the policymaking process.

    In a related line of research, Bellodi investigates why politicians adopt populist behaviors and examines the consequences of populism for government performance and the quality of bureaucracy.

    Luca Bellodi holds a PhD in political science from University College London. Before joining Stanford, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at Bocconi University in Milan.

  • Roberta Leonie Claude Fischli

    Roberta Leonie Claude Fischli

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Political Science

    BioRoberta Fischli is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University. Her research focuses on the social and political impact of artificial intelligence (AI), with a particular focus on how novel AI systems can promote personal freedom and democracy.

    Roberta was previously a Visiting Faculty Researcher at Google, where she worked on AI agents and value alignment. Previous research appointments include the University of California Berkeley, Georgetown University, and the University of St. Gallen. She is a research affiliate at the Machine Intelligence and Normative Theory (MINT) Lab at Australian National University, led by Seth Lazar.

    Roberta holds a PhD (summa cum laude) in International Affairs and Political Economy from the University of St. Gallen. Her dissertation monograph "Freedom after Algorithms" investigates the changing role of freedom in the digital age. Her research has appeared in Perspectives on Politics, the European Journal of Political Theory, and History of Political Thought, among others. Roberta also works as a freelance journalist.

  • Paul Lendway

    Paul Lendway

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Political Science

    BioThe norms and rules that comprise American democracy are eroding. Why? What are the consequences of this trend? And what can be done to address this issue? My research program aims to address these questions. One stream of my research investigates how various forms of political communication (i.e., sermon rhetoric, populist appeals, etc.) shape political preferences. Another strand of my research probes the role of information (i.e., information about social movements or inequality) in structuring public opinion and policy preferences. A final line of my research explores solutions to mass polarization. This includes a project that tests Americans' willingness to compromise on a series of multi-dimensional policy tradeoffs (i.e., a conservative immigration policy and a liberal abortion policy, etc.).

    My research is published in Political Behavior, American Politics Research, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, and Environmental Politics. My co-authored paper that meta-analyzes the literature on populist appeals and vote choice has a R&R at the American Journal of Political Science. Additionally, my research on sermon rhetoric and White evangelical support for the Republican Party has an R&R at Political Behavior. I have presented my research at a wide range of organizations, including the American Political Science Association, Harvard University, Princeton University, and Yale University. Funding for my research has been provided by the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, and other organizations.