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.  Her dissertation, The Crisis Welfare State: The Liberal Paradox in Times of Collective Risk, examines how the architecture of the everyday welfare state shapes its response to collective crises—such as COVID-19, the 2008 Financial Crisis, and natural disasters driven by climate change—during which welfare risks are heightened and correlated across society.  It investigates why minimalist Liberal welfare regimes like the United States tend to respond with massive but short-lived surges of emergency social spending, and under what conditions these temporary programs may evolve into lasting welfare state capacity versus fade as short-term relief.

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.