I am a PhD Candidate in Government & Social Policy and a Malcolm Wiener Scholar in Poverty and Justice. I am affiliated with the Center for American Political Studies (CAPS) and the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS). I study social policy, inequality, and the political economy of the energy transition in the United States. My dissertation project examines the politics of the American welfare state in regions of the country dominated by single industries. Most of my research and fieldwork focuses on communities in southern Appalachia. In addition to my dissertation, I am a researcher with the Roosevelt Project, a multi-year collaboration across several universities, including MIT, Harvard, and Carnegie Mellon, focused on regional strategies for deep decarbonization. Prior to my doctoral studies, I was a Senior Project Coordinator and Research Assistant at the Brookings Institution. I graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Political Science and Hispanic Studies. I earned my MSc in Comparative Social Policy from the University of Oxford.
Contact
ethom@g.harvard.edu
My Website
1737 Cambridge Street
Subfields
American Politics
Academic Interests
Environmental Policy | Political Economy & Development | Political Geography | Public Opinion | Public Policy | Social Policy & the Welfare State | State & Local Politics | Voter Behavior
Research Methods
Qualitative Methods | Quantitative Methods | Surveys
Geographic Regions of Study
United States