Jennifer Gandhi, Howard Wang ’95 Professor of Global Affairs and Political Science, is one of eight Yale faculty members recently elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
The academy — an honorary society and independent policy organization with initiatives in the arts, democracy, education, global affairs, and science — elects new members each year in recognition of their notable achievements in academia, industry, policy, research, and science.
“These new members’ accomplishments speak volumes about the human capacity for discovery, creativity, leadership, and persistence,” said Laurie L. Patton, president of the academy. “They are a stellar testament to the power of knowledge to broaden our horizons and deepen our understanding. We invite every new member to celebrate their achievement and join the Academy in our work to promote the common good.”
Gandhi is a faculty member at the Jackson School and in the Department of Political Science in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She also serves as the deputy dean of the Jackson School.
Gandhi, who joined the Yale faculty in 2022, is a political scientist whose work in comparative politics focuses on authoritarian regimes and transitions to democracy. In her research, she examines how autocracies use institutions, such as legislatures, parties, and elections, to consolidate their power. She also investigates the conditions under which opposition parties may coordinate to challenge autocratic incumbents in elections.
Gandhi’s most recent projects also examine post-authoritarian politics in the form of transitional justice — attempts to bring to justice those who perpetrated state violence under authoritarianism. In her work, she uses both cross-national data and more fine-grained data from countries as varied as Argentina, Malaysia, and Russia, to test her arguments.
Other Yale faculty members elected to the academy include: Oona Hathaway, an affiliated faculty member with the Jackson School’s Schmidt Program on Artificial Intelligence, Emerging Technologies and National Power; Ned Blackhawk (history); Gary Brudvig (chemistry); Valentina Greco (cellular and developmental biology); Marina Halac (economics); Caryl Phillips (literature); and Philipp Strack (economics).