Welcome, I’m Nitheesha!

Hello! I am a PhD Candidate in Political Science and Social Data Analytics at Pennsylvania State University. I am also an adjunct researcher at the RAND Corporation. My research interests lie at the intersection of race, gender, and digital politics. I focus on how subnational political elite’s identity influences their online interactions and constituency engagement. My work addresses key questions regarding inequality, policy and the risks of emergent technologies in modern American politics. My other work with the GAiN lab and the Center for Social Data Analytics broadly centers on topics within social media, public discourse and big data analytics. Our latest project, entitled the “Digitally Accountable Public Representation Database” is a new initative aimed towards advancing political communication research. Please check our blog for more information and exciting new updates.

I apply a variety of computational social science methods in my academic research. My methodological interests include machine learning, natural language processing, network analysis, causal inference and time series analysis. Part of my doctoral research advances our understanding of text-as-data methods by identifying necessary data preprocessing steps when using topic models or LLMs for content analysis.

I previously received a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Economics with a minor in French at the University of Connecticut. My Economics Honors thesis investigates the evolution of human trafficking in the global South. I went on to receive a Master of Arts in Sociology at Stony Brook University. At SBU I developed an interest in American politics and media which evolved into my Sociology Master’s thesis which examines the role of satire in political framing. I later received my Master of Arts in Political Science at Pennsylvania State University and for this thesis I used machine learning to examine how state legislators’ identity mediates the abuse they receive online. The through line of all my academic pursuits is my commitment to evaluating systemic inequality using rigorous methods.

Please contact me at nvn5240@psu.edu for any further questions and inquires, thank you for visiting!