Alyssa René Heinze

I’m a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley and a Research Associate at the Center on the Politics of Development. I research gendered understandings of: the political economy of local development, political inequality, and the consequences of climate change using mixed (in-depth qualitative, experimental, and machine-learning) methods. My dissertation project investigates the role of state and community control of natural resources in entrenching patriarchal gender relations. My research is located in the Global South, with a focus on India.

I am a two-time Fulbright fellowship recipient: I received the Fulbright DDRA Fellowship for 2025 and was a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow in Pune, India in 2018. I hold an MSc in Economics from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a BA in Political Science and South Asian Studies from Dartmouth College. Outside of the PhD, I’ve worked for the Impact Data and Evidence Aggregation Library project at the World Bank, the Research, Evaluation and Data Team at IDinsight, the Women’s Economic Empowerment Unit at the U.S. Department of State, Vera Solutions in Mumbai, India, and Chhori (Daughter) in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Publications

Who actually governs? Gender inequality and political representation in rural India
With Rachel Brulé and Simon Chauchard
Forthcoming at The Journal of Politics. Access here.

Working papers

Empowering the local executive: When electoral reform disrupts elite coalitions
Winner of the Philo Sherman Bennett Prize in Political Science
Honorable mention, Center for the Study of Law and Society Paper Prize
R&R, American Political Science Review.

Inclusive reforms as levers for social exclusion: The paradoxical consequences of quotas for women in rural India
With Rachel Brulé and Simon Chauchard

Why discussion rules matter for representation: Experimental evidence from rural India
With Rachel Brulé and Simon Chauchard

Research in progress

The gender politics of water
Dissertation work.

Women leaders and the environment in the world's largest democracy
With Priyadarshi Amar and Nilesh Shinde

Gendered victimhood: Framing Global South vulnerability in climate policy discourse
With Leonardo Arriola and Allison Grossman

Do peer mentorship groups increase the political agency of first-time female politicians? Experimental evidence from rural India
With Bhumi Purohit, Rachel Brulé, and Ishwari Kale