Anil Menon

Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Focus

I am a Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Government at Cornell University. In Fall 2023, I will join University of California, Merced’s Political Science Department as an Assistant Professor.

My research is motivated by three broad questions. How do traumatic experiences – ranging from interstate wars and forced migration to public health crises – shape short- and long-term political attitudes, behaviors, and institutions? What are the historical roots of contemporary patterns of economic and political development? Are rhetorical appeals to the past persuasive? My work on these questions is published or forthcoming at both academic and policy journals – American Political Science ReviewComparative Political Studies, The Economic JournalPLOS ONEInternational Journal of Public Health, and Current History – and has been featured in popular press outlets like the Washington Post: Monkey Cage and The Conversation.

I am a Visiting Research Fellow at The Center for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict at Harris Manchester College, Oxford University. Before moving to Ithaca, I completed my PhD in Political Science at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, an MSc. in Economic History (Research) at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a B.A. in Economics and History at Middlebury College. I am also an alumnus of the United World Colleges initiative.