Paige Bollen
Faculty Affiliate
email pbollen@mit.edu
Paige Bollen is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard Weatherhead Center and will begin as a faculty member at The Ohio State University in 2024. Paige completed her doctoral degree in the Political Science department at MIT in 2023. She was a Graduate Fellow at the Global Diversity Lab and the MIT GOV/LAB, as well as a 2016-2017 MIT Presidential Fellow. Her research explores the intersection between urban geography, ethnic identification and political behavior in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her dissertation project centers on understanding how ephemeral exposure to out-groups can shape perceptions of political equity. Relying on methods and insights from geographers, she focuses on how the configuration of urban space constrains and facilitates the sights and sounds to which individuals are privy. In turn, these quotidian experiences can act as a conduit of politically-relevant information on which citizens base their political perceptions and behavior. Before coming to MIT, Paige worked as a Project Manager and Research Support Associate at the MIT Governance Lab. She graduated magna cum laude with a BA in International Relations from Tufts University.
Projects
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Projects August 2017
The Many Faces of Urban Informality
GOV/LAB Seed Project: Three graduate students explore citizen participation and service provision in informal urban communities in Pakistan, Liberia, and Indonesia.
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Projects November 2015
Citizen Engagement and Voter Behavior in Tanzania
Under what conditions do voters evaluate election candidates based on performance and programmatic considerations in dominant-party systems?
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Projects November 2015
Trust and Cooperation in the Fight Against Ebola
How can governments engender compliance during a health crisis when citizens do not trust them?
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News April 2022
[MIT Political Science] Frequency Builds Familiarity
Urban street networks that encourage encounters among strangers link to lower ethnic tensions and anti-immigrant hostility
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News March 2016
Why Ugandan Youth Don't Vote — Learning Note 9
Youth make up the majority of Uganda’s population, yet account for a very small percentage of those who vote. What factors contribute to this disengagement?