Maya Sen

Maya Sen is a political scientist and an Associate Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School. Sen writes on issues involving the political economy of U.S. race relations, law and politics, and statistical methods. Her research has been published in leading journals such as the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Politics, and has been covered by the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, and other outlets. Her latest book, co-authored with Matthew Blackwell (Harvard) and Avidit Acharya (Stanford), explores the lasting impact of U.S. slavery on contemporary Southern politics. It is forthcoming with Princeton University Press in 2018.

Sen graduated in 2012 with her Ph.D. from the Department of Government, Harvard University. She also holds an A.M. in Statistics and an A.B. in Economics, both from Harvard University, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School, where she was a member of the Stanford Law Review.

Selected Publications

Academic Journal/Scholarly Articles

• Bonica, Adam, Adam S. Chilton, and Maya Sen. "The Political Ideologies of American Lawyers." Journal of Legal Analysis 8.2 (December 2016): 277-335.
• Bonica, Adam, Adam S. Chilton, Jacob Goldin, Kyle Rozema, and Maya Sen. "Measuring Judicial Ideology Using Law Clerk Hiring." American Law and Economics Review (November 2016).
• Bonica, Adam, Adam S. Chilton, Jacob Goldin, Kyle Rozema, and Maya Sen. "The Political Ideologies of Law Clerks." American Law and Economics Review (September 2016).
• Acharya, Avidit, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen. "Explaining Causal Findings Without Bias: Detecting and Assessing Direct Effects." The American Political Science Review 110.3 (August 2016).
• Sen, Maya. "The Political Legacy of American Slavery." The Journal of Politics 78.3 (July 2016): 621-641.
• Sen, Maya, and Omar Wasow. "Race as a ‘Bundle of Sticks’: Designs that Estimate Effects of Seemingly Immutable Characteristics." Annual Review of Political Science 19 (May 2016).
• Unkovic, Cait, Maya Sen, and Kevin M. Quinn. "Does Encouragement Matter in Improving Gender Imbalances in Technical Fields? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial." PloS One 11.4 (April 2016).
• Glynn, Adam, and Maya Sen. "Identifying Judicial Empathy: Does Having Daughters Cause Judges to Rule for Women's Issues?" American Journal of Political Science 59.1 (January 2015): 37–54.
• Sen, Maya. "How Judicial Qualifications Ratings May Disadvantage Minority and Female Candidates." Journal of Law and Courts 2.1 (Spring 2014): 33-65.

HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series

• Bonica, Adam, and Maya Sen. "The Politics of Selecting the Bench from the Bar: The Legal Profession and Partisan Incentives to Introduce Ideology into Judicial Selection." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP17-048, December 2017.
• Bonica, Adam, Adam Chilton, Kyle Rozema, and Maya Sen. "The Legal Academy's Ideological Uniformity." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP17-023, April 2017.
• Bonica, Adam, Adam Chilton, Jacob Goldin, Kyle Rozema, and Maya Sen. "Measuring Judicial Ideology Using Law Clerk Hiring." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP16-031, July 2016.
• Acharya, Adivit, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen. "Explaining Causal Findings Without Bias: Detecting and Assessing Direct Effects." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP15-064, October 2015.
• Bonica, Adam, Adam S. Chilton, and Maya Sen. "The Political Ideologies of American Lawyers." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP15-049, August 2015.
• Sen, Maya, and William Spaniel. "How Uncertainty about Judicial Nominees Can Distort the Confirmation Process." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP15-050, August 2015.
• Unkovic, Cait, Maya Sen, and Kevin M. Quinn. "Does Encouragement Matter in Improving Gender Imbalances in Technical Fields? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP15-032, June 2015.
• Acharya, Avidit, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen. "Explaining Attitudes from Behavior: A Cognitive Dissonance Approach." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP15-026, June 2015.
• Bonica, Adam, and Maya Sen. "The Politics of Selecting the Bench from the Bar: The Legal Profession and Partisan Incentives to Politicize the Judiciary." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP15-001, January 2015.
• Acharya, Avidit, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen. "The Political Legacy of American Slavery." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP14-057, December 2014.