Kristin Michelitch is an Assistant Professor of Political Science. She earned her PhD from New York University in 2013, specializing in comparative politics and experimental methods. Her research interests center around discovering major catalysts that improve or stymy the quality of democratic processes and the pace of socioeconomic progress, paying close attention to inequalities on the basis of gender, ethnicity, and partisanship.

She is currently active in four distinct but related research agendas: (1) examining the effect of major political upheaval on citizens' political and socioeconomic behavior; (2) investigating how political accountability for public service delivery might be improved, particularly through new information technologies; (3) discovering the primary mechanisms through which traditional elites such as chiefs and religious leaders influence citizens' political and socioeconomic behavior; and (4) understanding how women obtain rights, representation, and status improvement. By evaluating aid programming through policy field experiments, she seeks to advance our knowledge of political science and help policy-makers learn which programs are most effective in improving the wellbeing of citizens.