Kaitlin Senk, PhD
University of Bath
I am a Lecturer in the Department of Politics, Languages, and International Studies at University of Bath. Prior to my position at Bath, I worked as a Research Fellow on the ERC funded TWICEASGOOD Project at University of Exeter and was affiliated with the Centre for Computational Social Science. I received my PhD in Political Science at Rice University in May 2022. My work has been published in Legislative Studies Quarterly, the American Political Science Review, Politics, Groups, and Identities, the Latin American Research Review, and Politics & Gender. Additionally, my research has been featured in several public-facing outlets including The Guardian, the Let’s Talk Polarization podcast, and the American Political Science Association's Public Scholarship Program's newsletter Political Science Now. I have also appeared on LBC, Heart, and BBC Radio to provide expert statements on the 2024 US general elections.
My research focuses on women's political representation in a global context. I study women's representation from both the perspective of elite and mass political behavior to better understand how women are elected to office, what women do once elected to office, how political institutions constrain women's political behavior, and how voters react to women's representation broadly. Additionally, my current research also focuses on how women’s representation intersects with current political issues such as partisan polarization. My substantive research is accompanied by a continual effort to develop the use of quantitative and computational research methods within Political Science. Specifically, I use a range of methods including experiments, large scale timeseries cross-sectional analysis, survey methods, web-scraping, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) using both R and Python. My research has been generously funded by Rice University's Doerr Institute and Social Sciences Research Institute.
I also work in collaboration with civil society organizations and practitioners working to address women's (under)representation in government. In an ESRC funded project with Hilde Coffé, we have worked to bring together various stakeholders to understand the financial barriers that women candidates face when running for office in the UK. In partnership with these organizations we have organized a round-table event, produced a research report, and are working toward producing evidence-based policy recommendations that will offer suggestions for supporting women candidates running for office.
In my teaching, I aim to provide an inclusive learning environment structured around scientific inquiry and methodology. I approach teaching in a research-led way, embedding methods training within substantive content to make concepts easily accessible to students. Additionally, I am committed to ensuring that students gain an understanding of politics from a diversity of perspectives by teaching students to engage with course material from a gendered and intersectional lens. In 2022, I was awarded the Career Champion Award from Rice University's Center for Career Development for empowering students in their professional development.
My research focuses on women's political representation in a global context. I study women's representation from both the perspective of elite and mass political behavior to better understand how women are elected to office, what women do once elected to office, how political institutions constrain women's political behavior, and how voters react to women's representation broadly. Additionally, my current research also focuses on how women’s representation intersects with current political issues such as partisan polarization. My substantive research is accompanied by a continual effort to develop the use of quantitative and computational research methods within Political Science. Specifically, I use a range of methods including experiments, large scale timeseries cross-sectional analysis, survey methods, web-scraping, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) using both R and Python. My research has been generously funded by Rice University's Doerr Institute and Social Sciences Research Institute.
I also work in collaboration with civil society organizations and practitioners working to address women's (under)representation in government. In an ESRC funded project with Hilde Coffé, we have worked to bring together various stakeholders to understand the financial barriers that women candidates face when running for office in the UK. In partnership with these organizations we have organized a round-table event, produced a research report, and are working toward producing evidence-based policy recommendations that will offer suggestions for supporting women candidates running for office.
In my teaching, I aim to provide an inclusive learning environment structured around scientific inquiry and methodology. I approach teaching in a research-led way, embedding methods training within substantive content to make concepts easily accessible to students. Additionally, I am committed to ensuring that students gain an understanding of politics from a diversity of perspectives by teaching students to engage with course material from a gendered and intersectional lens. In 2022, I was awarded the Career Champion Award from Rice University's Center for Career Development for empowering students in their professional development.
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Note: All photos on this site were taken by me from places in Latin America.