Welcome — I am an Assistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. My research asks under what conditions can representative government – one that provides equality of voice and influence – improve people’s lives? My work brings evidence from a number of South Asian contexts – Pakistan, India, and Nepal, home to a quarter of the world’s population. I work closely with politicians, political parties, bureaucrats, and government agencies to show that those not considered traditionally elite are in fact equally, if not more, capable of competent governance. I demonstrate that incorporating non-elite – and therefore, more representative – voices in government robustly improves policy.

Before joining Princeton, I was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. I received my Ph.D. in Politics at New York University in 2017. My work has received the Best Dissertation Award from American Political Science Association’s Experiments Section, as well as the Lawrence Longley Award for best article published on Representation & Electoral Systems in 2020, and the Paul A. Sabatier Award for best conference paper on Science, Technology, & Environmental Politics in 2020. My Google Scholar profile is available here.

Contact: 

001 Fisher Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544-1012

Email: gulzar(at)princeton(dot)edu