Shahrzad Sabet is an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Maryland’s Bahá’í Chair for World Peace Program. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and a Senior Research Fellow at Princeton University's Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance. She recently received her PhD from the Department of Government at Harvard University, where she was an associate of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science.
Professor Sabet is a specialist in international political economy with training and research interests spanning political science, economics, political philosophy, and psychology. Her doctoral research employs the tools of both economics and psychology to understand how people think about and respond to economic globalization. Specifically, this work investigates how non-material factors such as values, identity, and symbolic attitudes (e.g., nationalism, prejudice) interact with economic considerations to shape public opinion and behavior.
Professor Sabet’s current research combines her empirical study of globalization and identity with questions of political philosophy. Current projects explore the tension between particular attachments and universal commitments in an interconnected context, and the challenges posed by globalization to notions of identity, justice, and responsibility.
Dr. Sabet has contributed commentary to publications such as the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, and has taught courses on the political economy of globalization at Harvard University and for the Baha’i Institute of Higher Education. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including recently, the International Studies Association’s Carl Beck Best Paper Award and Harvard University’s Derek Bok Center award for distinction in teaching. Outside of academia, she consults for and collaborates with several NGOs on globalization-related issues.
Professor Sabet holds an MPhil in Political Theory from Oxford University (Balliol College), where she studied as a Commonwealth Scholar, and a BA in Political Science and Economics from McGill University. She currently resides in Manhattan.
Selected Recent Writings
The Science Behind Donald Trump's "Us versus Them" Rhetoric (Los Angeles Times)
Feelings First: Non-Material Factors as Moderators of Economic Self-Interest Effects on Trade Preferences (Revise and Resubmit at International Organization)
Key Ingredients of Opposition to Free Trade? Prejudice and Nationalism (Washington Post)
Does Cultural Distance from Trading Partners Affect Public Support for Free Trade? Evidence from a Survey Experiment