About

Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
A.B., Harvard University

Angie Jo is an Assistant Professor in Politics at Bates College.   Her research bridges political economy, comparative social policy, crisis governance, and state capacity in wealthy industrialized democracies.

Angie’s book project—The Liberal Welfare State in Crisis: Risk, Relief, and State Capacity—examines a paradox of governance in liberal market economies, such as the United States:  states that invest minimally in social protections in ordinary times often intervene extraordinarily when collective crises—such as pandemics, financial crises, and recurrent natural disasters—strike.  It examines how the architecture and politics of inherited welfare institutions shape these emergency responses, and why temporary infusions of money, attention, and administrative activity so often fail to convert into durable institutional change and expansion of the social safety net.  Her broader research agenda examines the politics of collective risk and social protection over the long term, including disaster relief within systems of fiscal federalism; beliefs about the proper role of the state in “everyday” vs. “exceptional” times; and the implications of discretionary crisis spending on the logic of fiscal conservatism.

Angie’s work has been supported by an NSF/APSA Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant, a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Doctoral Scholarship, the Oxford Global Priorities Institute, the Consortium on the American Political Economy, and an MIT Presidential Graduate Fellowship.  Her work has received APSA Section Prizes in American Political Economy and State Politics & Policy, as well as the NEPSA Robert C. Wood Prize for Best Graduate Student Paper.

Angie holds a Master of City Planning degree from MIT, an AB in History of Art and Architecture summa cum laude from Harvard, and previously worked in investment at Bridgewater Associates.  She grew up between Seoul, the Bay Area, and Vancouver.