About Me
Iâm a PhD student in political science. I study lobbying and the role of experts in democracies. I am also a freelance investigative journalist.
My academic work has been published in Political Analysis and Perspectives on Politics. I have bylines in Computer Weekly and Byline Times. My data journalism on pandemic cronyism has been cited several times in the UK Parliament.
Education
Harvard University
PhD in Government | in progress
Columbia University
MA in Political Science | 2016
University of Oxford, Balliol College
MMathPhil* in Mathematics & Philosophy (1st Class Honours) | 2013 (*4 year undergraduate degree)
Academic Publications
What is Ideological Capture and How Do We Measure It? Using Antitrust Reform to Understand Expert-Public Cleavages. Joint with Jacob R. Brown and Nicholas Short. Forthcoming. Perspectives on Politics. [Paper]
Priming Bias Versus Post-Treatment Bias in Experimental Designs. 2025. Political Analysis. Joint with Matthew Blackwell, Jacob R. Brown, Kosuke Imai, and Teppei Yamamoto. [Paper] [Appendix] [Replication data] [R package]
Journalism
Russia hacked ex-MI6 chiefâs emails â what they reveal is more Dadâs Army than deep state. 15 January 2024. Computer Weekly & Byline Times. [Link] [PDF] [Interactive graphic]
Interactive graphic for: Top science journal faced secret attacks from Covid conspiracy theory group. 3 October 2023. Computer Weekly & Byline Times. [Link] [PDF] [Interactive graphic]
Chumocracy: UK Prime Ministers, Cronyism, and the Pandemic. 28 April 2021. Interview on Covid-19 and Democracy Podcast. [Listen]
The Toriesâ âchumocracyâ over Covid contracts is destroying public trust. 21 November 2020. The Guardian. [Link] [PDF]
Will the Knowledge Economy Survive the Pandemic? 19 November 2020. Political Insight. [Link] [PDF]
What I Learnt About the Great Procurement Scandal: Building âMy Little Cronyâ. 13 November 2020. Byline Times. [Link] [PDF]
My Little Crony. 9 November 2020. [Link] [Github repo]
- Mentioned in UK parliament 1, 2, 3 times and cited in written evidence to a parliamentary select committee
- Media coverage: Metro, City A.M., BBC Radio 4, LBC, The London Economic
- Academic citations: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Parties have failed voters â but they are still our best hope. 12 December 2019. UK in a Changing Europe. [Link] [PDF]
Network Visualizations
In addition to My Little Crony, Iâve made a few more interactive network maps for various projects:
The Covid Hunters and Sneaky Strawhead. Visualizations to accompany reporting in Computer Weekly & Byline Times on the âsneaky strawheadâ leaked emails.
Pray to Play? Visualizing links between the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and firms winning government contracts during the pandemic.
Untold Murder. Visualizing the network of key players in the Daniel Morgan murder case, as told in the podcast/book Untold Murder
Interactive Apps for Learning Statistics
Eyeball regression: an app to help students build intuition around linear regression.
Z-score visualization: an app to help students understand z-scores.
Confidence intervals simulation: an app to help students understand and interpret confidence intervals.
Base Rate Fallacy: an app to help students understand the âbase rate fallacyâ.
Bayesâ rule visualization: an app to help students visualize Bayesâ rule.
Teaching
I have taught a range of substantive and methods courses for undergrads, public policy masterâs students, and PhD students. I particularly enjoy helping people overcome their fear of statistics using interactive tools!
I was awarded a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching by the Harvard University Derek Bok Center for Teaching & Learning in 2021 and a Deanâs Award for Excellence in Teaching by the Harvard Kennedy School in 2022.
Gov 1360 American Public Opinion (undergraduate course), taught by Prof. Stephen Ansolabehere [Syllabus]
Gov 2006 Formal Political Theory II (graduate course), taught by Prof. James Snyder [Syllabus, Section slides]
Gov 1780 International Political Economy (undergraduate course), taught by Prof. Jeffry Frieden. [Syllabus, Section slides]
HKS API-201 Quantitative Analysis and Empirical Methods (graduate course), taught by Prof.s Teddy Svoronos, Dan Levy et al. [Syllabus, Section slides]
HKS API-202 Quantitative Analysis and Empirical Methods (graduate course), taught by Prof.s Benjamin Schneer et al. [Syllabus, Section slides]