Alyssa René Heinze

I’m a PhD student 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 research is located in the Global South, with a focus on India.

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. I was also a Fulbright-Nehru Research Fellow affiliated with the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in Pune, India. 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.

Working papers

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

Empowering the local executive: When electoral reform disrupts elite coalitions
Winner of the Philo Sherman Bennett Prize in Political Science
Under review.

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

Research in progress

The gendered climate crisis: Rupturing and reinforcing patriarchy
Dissertation work.

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

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