Graduate Fellows

Benjamin Fields

Berkeley Computational Social Science Fellow
Sociology, UC Berkeley

Benjamin Fields is a PhD student in the sociology department at the University of California, Berkeley. A health-oriented social scientist, he wants to focus his research on a social understanding of diet and its relationship to well-being, looking beyond the physiological definition of food towards one that includes social, cultural, political, and economic considerations.

Peter Forberg

Berkeley Computational Research for Equity in the Legal System Fellow
Sociology, UC Berkeley

Peter Forberg is a PhD student in Sociology at UC Berkeley. His research focuses on the connections between digital technology, the administrative state, and political movements. In particular, he is interested in how political actors are using technology to reshape contemporary knowledge and enact their political visions. Prior to entering graduate school, Peter conducted independent research on the political conspiracy group QAnon. In future research, he hopes to combine the methods of computational data science with those of qualitative content analysis and participant observation....

Annette Gailliot

Berkeley Computational Social Science Fellow
Sociology, UC Berkeley

Annette Gailliot is a Sociology PhD student at UC Berkeley, with a specialization in Political Economy. Her research focuses on how technology is changing work-based inequalities and regulations. Combining historical and quantitative methods, she is particularly interested in understanding how barriers to social welfare access affect health outcomes. Prior to starting her PhD, she worked on The Shift Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, studying how unpredictable scheduling affects wellbeing and health for low-wage service sector workers. Gailliot holds dual Bachelors of Science in...

Taylor Galdi

Berkeley Computational Research for Equity in the Legal System Fellow
Berkeley Law School, UC Berkeley

Taylor Galdi is a JD/PhD student in Berkeley Law's Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program. Her research focuses on courts, social movements and social change, and the legal profession. Prior to starting her PhD, Taylor worked as a Mitigation Specialist at the Center for Community Alternatives and as a Lab Manager at the University of Michigan Law School. Taylor holds an MFA in Literary Nonfiction Writing from Eastern Washington University and a BA in Psychology from the University of Michigan.

Omair Gill

Berkeley Computational Research for Equity in the Legal System Fellow
Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley

Omair is a PhD student at the Goldman School of Public Policy. His current research focuses on the impacts of California’s Three-Strikes law and free prison communications. Prior to starting his PhD, Omair was a research associate at the California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley, where he worked on projects related to prison sentencing and criminal law. Omair holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from UC Davis.

Meareg Hailemariam

BIDS Graduate Fellow
Development Engineering, College of Engineering, UC Berkeley

Meareg Hailemariam is a master's student in Development Engineering at the UC Berkeley College of Engineering. His research interests lie at the intersection of data analytics/machine learning and development issues. Currently, as part of his capstone project, he is working with the Potts Lab and fellow DevEng students on a research project that uses Meta Ads Reach estimates to track climate-driven seasonal migration in the case of Guatemala. He is also a Digital Transformation of Development fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Countries, UC Berkeley.

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Jonathan Landeros-Cisneros

Berkeley Computational Research for Equity in the Legal System Fellow
Education, Critical Studies UC Berkeley

Joni Landeros-Cisneros is a Ph.D. student in Education at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds a Master of Anthropology and a BS in Anthropology from Iowa State University. Additionally, he has contributed to academia by instructing courses with critical and decolonial frameworks in the fields of education and Spanish language learning. His research portfolio spans interdisciplinary quantitative and qualitative methods, with a focus on critical social issues such as whiteness in pedagogical content, carceral humanitarianism in K-12, and targeted racialized policing in...

Daniel Lobo

Berkeley Computational Social Science Fellow
Sociology, UC Berkeley

Daniel Lobo is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at UC Berkeley. Historically, his research interests have been in education inequality in K-12 and higher education, with a focus on the life outcomes of low-income students. Lobo is currently interested in two lines of research: the global political economy of higher education and the effects of social media on cultural production and reproduction. Epistemologically, he seeks to leverage big data and machine learning to bridge disciplines in his research and to ask predictive questions in the social sciences. As a CSSTP fellow,...

Marisa Tsai

Berkeley Computational Social Science Fellow
Epidemiology, Public Health, UC Berkeley

Marisa Tsai is a PhD student in Epidemiology at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the effects of early life nutrition and the role of federal nutrition assistance programs in reducing health disparities, increasing food security, and improving dietary intake. Prior to starting her PhD, she worked on studies evaluating policy changes in school meals, healthy retail policies, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. Marisa holds an MS and MPH in Food and Nutrition Policy and Programs from the Friedman School of Nutrition...

Christina Misunas

Berkeley Computational Social Science Fellow

Christina Misunas is a PhD student in Demography at UC Berkeley. Her research to date has focused on the intersection of gender, health, and education in low- and middle-income countries. For the past five years, she has worked with Population Council and UNICEF’s Data Analysis Unit on research around girls’ education, child marriage, and adolescent childbearing. Prior to working in research, Christina spent several years in Washington, DC, working on global advocacy and programming for sexual and reproductive health with Marie Stopes International and the Open Society Foundations. Misunas...