Ph.D in Political Science, University of Pennsylvania M.A. in Political Science, University of Pennsylvania M.A. in Political Science, University of Chicago B.A. in Psychology, St. Xavier's College
Bio
Professor Badrinathan works on misinformation, media, and politics, with a regional focus on South Asia. Her research spans three substantive areas. (1) Countering misinformation: How can we make citizens more resilient to falsehoods? (2) Accountability for misinformation: How do we hold elites responsible for spreading false information? (3) Impacts of misinformation: What are the political and societal consequences of misinformation on violence, prejudice, and quality of democracy?
Methodologically, she relies on field experiments, original surveys, and primary data collection. She often collaborate with civil society organizations and government institutions to design projects that evaluate policy impacts and produce actionable evidence. Her latest project involves a long-term randomized controlled trial providing education on misinformation to over 13,000 schoolchildren across nearly 600 villages in India.
Her work has appeared in academic journals such as the American Political Science Review (x2) as well as popular press such as The Washington Post. It has also been featured on podcasts such as Scope Conditions and Grand Tamasha, as well as Indian media outlets like The Hindu, Scroll, and Hindustan Times.
Prior to SIS, Professor Badrinathan earned a PhD in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania and was a postdoc fellow at the University of Oxford.
