New website is now up at jfearon4.github.io. I hadn’t updated the old one in embarrassingly many years. Lots of new and old unpublished stuff on the new site.

I saw this paper presented at the Brown-Harvard South Asian Politics Seminar. AMM delivered one of the best presentations I’ve seen, followed by a extraordinary discussion by a Martha Chen, a development practitioner in BGD when the cyclone. Research is most powerful when it tells human stories

VoxDev@voxdev.bsky.social · last wk.

🆕 The birth of Bangladesh: How the Bhola cyclone fostered revolution 📢 Today on Economics Unpacked, @mushfiq-econ.bsky.social (@yalesom.bsky.social @yaleeconomics.bsky.social) explores the role of the 1970 Bhola cyclone in shaping Bangladesh's independence: www.youtube.com/watch?v=r03M...

Belief in magic emerges most strongly among those who are both scientifically oriented and residually religious. Secular rationalism does not erase belief in supernatural mechanisms. It affirms the individual’s agency to decide what they are academic.oup.com/sf/advance-a...

The magic of secularization

Abstract. Institutional secularization does not necessitate a secular public. In fact, as church memberships decline, more individualized sources of supern

academic.oup.com

Working on this paper was so fun! Excited that it's now out in the world and I hope you can check it out. It builds on broader agendas on the built environment and how space structures social contact from both Paige and I, w/ more info here: paigebollen.com and nlnathan.mit.edu

American Political Science Review@apsrjournal.bsky.social · 2w ago

From our FirstView: Vernacular Architecture and Grassroots Urban Politics: How Politics Is Embedded in Residential Design by PAIGE BOLLEN and @nlnathan.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1017/S000...

From our FirstView: Vernacular Architecture and Grassroots Urban Politics: How Politics Is Embedded in Residential Design by PAIGE BOLLEN and @nlnathan.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1017/S000...

Vernacular Architecture and Grassroots Urban Politics: How Politics Is Embedded in Residential Design | American Political Science Review | Cambridge Core

Vernacular Architecture and Grassroots Urban Politics: How Politics Is Embedded in Residential Design

doi.org

Had that impression during the conference, confirmed now by the report: Harvard University was the non-European institution with the most attendees at EPSS. Not all European/Europeanists: we were 11 participants presenting papers across 10 different sections. Good stuff @harvardgovdept.bsky.social !

EPSS@epssnet.bsky.social · 4w ago

If you want more details on the #EPSS2026 conference, you can find it in the Belfast 2026 conference report: epssnet.org/belfast-repo...

Happy to have contributed to the latest HBES newsletter on our recent paper, The Meanings and Dividends of Man the Hunter, led by @vivek123.bsky.social I reflect on MTH through the lens of my research on Bayaka women's foraging & cooperation in the Congolese rainforest www.hbes.com/revisiting-m...

Revisiting Man the Hunter - HBES

– by Haneul Jang For decades, the phrase Man the Hunter has occupied a central place in discussions of human evolution. Today, however, the phrase sounds outdated, evoking a familiar image of men hunt...

hbes.com

Delighted to see my paper "Mobile money and the social contract: Experimental evidence from Ghana" (coauthored with David Doyle) out at World Development! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Mobile money and the social contract: Experimental evidence from Ghana

Mobile money platforms are ubiquitous in many emerging economies. Hailed for raising financial inclusion and economic wellbeing, governments have now …

sciencedirect.com

EPSS 2026: That's a wrap! 🎊 Thanks to all presenters, discussants, chairs, section chairs, volunteers, & participants for making this conference such a success. Safe travels, and see you at EPSS 2027 in Copenhagen!

We appreciate the cultural exchange. The only thing missing was a Eurovision playlist, though.

The American mind couldn’t comprehend!!!

EPSS@epssnet.bsky.social · 2mo ago

And now the #EPSS2026 afterparty at Lavery‘s

The political economy of development panels at @epssnet.bsky.social

Tremendous privilege to have shared time in grad school with @rduartegonzalez.bsky.social

Jessica Leight@leightjessica.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @rduartegonzalez, a brand-new PhD (congrats!) currently a postdoc at Yale and soon joining FIU who works on topics related to political economy + governance in LMICs

Super cool work by colleague Konstantin Poensgen

Jessica Leight@leightjessica.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Icymi #econtwitter #econsky: a new RCT showed that mentoring ⬆️ successful applications from students in SSA to masters' + PhD programs in economics: the percentage of successful ⬆️ from 16 to 32. From Adhar @OdhiamboFrank_O Poensgen

Excellent new special Issue on the challenges raised by the ancient DNA of kinship Special Issue: Kinship Trouble: Traversing Interdisciplinary Boundaries between Archaeology, Archaeogenetics and Socio-cultural Anthropology www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Cognitive anthropologist Dimitris Xygalatas measured heart rates of firewalkers, relatives, and tourists. The walker and relatives' heart rates were synch'd. (Tourists weren't) Walkers reached 180bpm tho they recalled being "calm" www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNfg... pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21536887/

Firewalking in San Pedro Manrique, Spain

YouTube video by UConn

youtube.com

🚨 Just shipped a major update to GERDA, the German Election Database. - State elections update: new years + mail-in - 3 new election types: Mayoral, County, European - Municipal elections: 1984-2025 - Meinungsbild public opinion - New website & features german-elections.com

From our FirstView articles: How Partisan Are U.S. Local Elections? Evidence from 2020 Cast Vote Records by ALEKSANDRA CONEVSKA, SHIGEO HIRANO, @shirokuriwaki.bsky.social, JEFFREY B. LEWIS, CAN MUTLU and JAMES M. SNYDER Jr. doi.org/10.1017/S000...

How Partisan Are U.S. Local Elections? Evidence from 2020 Cast Vote Records | American Political Science Review | Cambridge Core

How Partisan Are U.S. Local Elections? Evidence from 2020 Cast Vote Records

doi.org

Looking forward to hosting the 2026 meeting of the Boston/New England Area Working Group in African Political Economy (BWGAPE) on May 8 with Jamie Hintson, @chinemeluokafor.bsky.social & Nic Wicaksono. Please submit your papers and research designs if you're in the region!

Donghyun Danny Choi@dhdannychoi.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Deadline for submission to the Boston/New England Area Working Group in African Political Economy (BWGAPE) at Harvard is March 27. Please apply! @nlnathan.bsky.social @evlieb.bsky.social @piaraffler.bsky.social @scrosenzweig.bsky.social @chinemeluokafor.bsky.social Link: forms.gle/7R9PkFWEZTc6...

The call for 2026 APCG Award Nominations is live! The deadline for nominations is May 1st. Nominate scholars for Best Dissertation, Best Graduate Student Paper, Distinguished Africanist, Best Article and Best Book! www.afpol.org/blog/2026-ap...

2026 APCG Award Nominations

The 2026 APCG Award nominations are now open and due May 1st! Nominate scholars for Best Dissertation, Best Graduate Student Paper, Distinguished Africanist, Best Article and Best Book.

afpol.org

Awards nominations are open for African Politics! Please share widely! @jsteend.bsky.social @stephaniewanga.bsky.social @evlieb.bsky.social @africasacountry.bsky.social @jsas-journal.bsky.social @chinemeluokafor.bsky.social @thelauram16.bsky.social @woldense.bsky.social

African Politics Conference Group@africanpoliticscg.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The call for 2026 APCG Award Nominations is live! The deadline for nominations is May 1st. Nominate scholars for Best Dissertation, Best Graduate Student Paper, Distinguished Africanist, Best Article and Best Book! www.afpol.org/blog/2026-ap...

Power and Inclusiveness Across Deep Time. Our collaboration between archaeology and political science, out today in Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The distribution of power and inclusiveness across deep time

Democratic practice in the premodern world was not the exclusive domain of Greece and Rome.

science.org

surely @ryanenos.bsky.social will get 100% here?

Harvard meets Hollywood: A quiz — Harvard Gazette

What, like it’s hard?

links.repoint.harvard.edu

🆕 North Korea's economy: The study of economic black holes Today on VoxDev, Stephan Haggard (@gpsucsd.bsky.social), Kyoochul Kim & Munseob Lee discuss the range of forensic methods available to researchers when official statistics are unavailable, or unreliable: voxdev.org/topic/method...

North Korea's economy: The study of economic black holes

When official statistics are unavailable or unreliable, researchers can use a range of forensic methods – such as satellite imagery, mirror trade data, price monitoring, refugee surveys, humanitarian ...

voxdev.org

Over the weekend, I started collecting/organizing a list of cool #rstats skills for LLMs at github.com/christopherk.... Please open an issue or PR in any awesome additions you see! Includes a section for helpful posts like @ivelasq3.bsky.social's⬇️

GitHub - christopherkenny/awesome-rstats-skills: Awesome list of rstats skills for AI workflows

Awesome list of rstats skills for AI workflows. Contribute to christopherkenny/awesome-rstats-skills development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Isabella Velásquez@ivelasq3.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I rounded up a few Claude Skills for #RStats users. Huge thanks to the creators who developed them. They share Skills for everything from tidyverse code to brand.yml files to learning while using AI. Hope the list is useful, and please let me know what I missed! 🧡 rworks.dev/posts/claude...

Development policy effects are context-dependent and social traits often labeled as barriers may, in some settings, be sources of economic success, from Jacob Moscona, @nathannunn.bsky.social, and James A. Robinson www.nber.org/papers/w34810

Study of the 2012 Occupy Nigeria protests presents evidence that protests increase fiscal transfers to protesting regions, but only in politically aligned areas, from @belindaarch.bsky.social, Chinemelu Okafor, Evans S. Osabuohien, and Tom Moerenhout www.nber.org/papers/w34787

JOIN us for this year’s Rebecca Morton conference on experimental political science at NYU! March 6-7. We have a great line up of papers and posters! Program (scroll down) here: wp.nyu.edu/cesspolitica... Register (no fee) here: nyu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

🎺 Call for proposals 🎺 1️⃣ replicate an existing experiment 2️⃣ run a novel experiment on repdata.com 3️⃣ coauthor with Mary McGrath and me to meta-analyze the replications and existing studies 4️⃣ publish your study details: alexandercoppock.com/replication_... applications open Feb 1 please repost!