Alexander Hudson, PhD Government '18
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Tell us about your current position and the work you’re doing now.
I’m a Democracy Assessment Specialist in the Democracy Assessment Unit at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) in Stockholm, Sweden. It is an intergovernmental organisation that functions in part as a think tank, but also provides technical assistance around the world. My own work centres on the annual updates to our Global State of Democracy dataset. I am primarily responsible for estimating the values of these indicators, identifying the most important developments and trends, explaining what the data substantively mean, and creating data visualisations for our various publications. I write reports and concept notes for internal audiences, and contribute to publications, blogs, presentations, and other communications products. In recent days, I’ve also been explaining our most recent report to journalists who’ve been covering our findings.
How did your time at UT impact your career and/or research trajectory?
My studies at UT were absolutely fundamental to everything that I’ve done since. Many of the opportunities that I have had in academic research came from the networks that the faculty at UT helped me to establish. My current work is not directly related to my dissertation research, so I’m drawing a lot more on the courses in comparative politics and research methods that I took at UT. But I think that the things that I picked up as a doctoral student that are most useful to me now are the kinds of skills born of necessity: the ability to quickly learn the key points of an area of research and to teach myself how to do new things in data analysis and visualisation.
What’s one of your favorite memories from your time in our PhD program?
It’s tough to narrow it down to one moment, but I have great memories of everything relating to my work on the Constitute Project with Zachary Elkins. Early in my graduate career Zach got me involved in that project, and he was really generous in involving me (and other graduate students) in some really interesting discussions and events in Austin, but also in New York, Berkeley and Hannover. That experience of making academic research useful for non-specialist audiences helped me make the transition from academia to the more applied work I do now.
Any advice for current UT GOV grad students?
I guess the first and most obvious thing is take as many research methods courses as you can. You never know what might be useful to you later. I’ve had to try to teach myself some things that I could have learned in a better way at UT. The second is to have a holistic view of how you are building your CV. The things that one needs to do to become a recognised expert on a very specific thing are obvious, but graduate students also have opportunities to pick up a lot of soft skills that can set you apart outside academic research. Finally, enjoy every day in Austin. I love living in Stockholm, but it’s been a long time since I enjoyed some brisket on a warm and sunny patio