Daniel T. Roberts

Hello, I am a PhD Candidate in the Department of Government at Harvard University.

My Research Agenda Focuses on "Opportunity Politics" in Rich Democracies. In my dissertation monograph in progress, I study the Political Economy of Education, Housing, and Credit as contested institutional mediators of opportunity access comparatively and over time, developing a theory of "Opportunity Politics" drawing upon the United States, Germany, and Japan as country-cases across two historical periods (1945-1980,1981-Present). The dissertation takes a mixed methods approach, incorporating both quantitative analysis of historical and contemporary data on public opinion and political behavior, as well as qualitative analysis through process tracing, archival research, and ongoing interviews. In a separate but related strand of research, I study the Political Economy of Financial Regulation and its impact on real economy credit conditions, building upon Financial Economics scholarship from earlier years published in the Journal of Banking and Finance. 

My Teaching history reflects my eclectic approach to pedagogy for the study of politics. My prior  experience spans diverse fields including Comparative Politics, International Political Economy, American Education Politics, Ethics, Political Theory, Economics, and Mathematics, drawing upon my interdisciplinary approach to scholarship. This breadth is reflected in the syllabus and course goals of my self-developed seminar on "Opportunity Politics" for Harvard College sophomores taught in Spring 2024 (original syllabus available on request), building upon my dissertation project and drawing from perspectives in Political Science, Economics, Sociology, and Political Philosophy.

Before beginning my PhD, I received a B.A. in Economics at the University of Chicago, specializing in Macroeconomics. I then worked as a Research Analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the Capital Markets Section of the Research and Statistics Group, with contributions to studies of bond market liquidity, equity market volatility, and financial regulation recognized internally with an Award and covered in news outlets including the Financial Times and Bloomberg. In the course of my PhD, I received a MA in Government at Harvard, and have been a visiting scholar with the Political Economy Research Area at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, the AxPo Observatory of Market Society Polarization at Sciences Po, and Nuffield College at Oxford University while on a Dissertation Research Fellowship granted by the Center for European Studies at Harvard University.

Finally, reflecting personal and professional side interests, I do occasionally write on topics in film and political theory,  as reflected in interpretive work on Japanese cinema at Senses of Cinema.