Major: Economics & Political Science
Minor: Mathematics
Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts & Oxford, UK
Thesis Advisor: Larry Diamond & Javier Mejia

Tentative Thesis Title: Toward a Theory of the Evolution of the Global Political Economy: Varieties of Democracy, Development and Law

Future aspirations post-Stanford: I would like to undertake a joint JD/PhD in political economy and to work in the academy, public, and private sectors.

A fun fact about yourself: I was the youngest person in UK history to litigate on behalf of the disabled in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Employment Tribunal, where I cross-examined a dozen senior leaders of a $500 million organization in a 40-day trial for an ongoing four-year, multi-million dollar lawsuit, in which I have been acting on a pro bono basis.

Major: Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity
Minor: Political Science
Hometown: Stilwell, Cherokee Reservation
Thesis Advisor: Michael Wilcox

Tentative Thesis Title: Flames of Unity; Two Governments One People: Tracing ᎠᏂᎩᏚᏩᎩ Relocation and Reunification in Oklahoma: Economic, Political, and Social Transformations

Future aspirations post-Stanford: After Stanford, I hope to serve my community in whatever capacity they need. I plan to continue my education to deepen my understanding of law and public policy, equipping myself to advocate for my community in both political and legal spaces. Above all, I am committed to centering Indigenous voices in academia, politics, and popular culture, ensuring our perspectives shape the conversations that impact our future.

A fun fact about yourself: A fun fact about me is that in 2021, I retraced my community’s forced removal from North Carolina to Oklahoma on the 1,000-mile Remember the Removal bike ride, which took a month to complete. Along the route, I advocated for an honest retelling of our history — moving beyond sugar-coated narratives to recenter the truth about the Trail of Tears. I continue to support new cohorts in their training and hope to take part in the ride again someday.

Ana Paula Pellegrino is the Gerhard Casper Fellow in Rule of Law at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) and a JSD Candidate at Stanford Law School. Pellegrino is an empirical political scientist using experimental, observational, and qualitative data to study questions of criminal and political violence, with a particular interest in Latin America. Her research agenda includes projects on state and non-state armed actors, including police and criminal groups, and how they form and engage with each other. Other projects explore public attitudes towards violence and war, as well as the micro-dynamics of violence and war outcomes.

Pellegrino's work has been supported by Georgetown University, Fundação Estudar’s Leaders program, and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation’s Emerging Scholars program. She holds a Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University and a BA and MA in International Relations from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. She is an incoming Assistant Professor at the School of Government at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, in Santiago, where she will begin in July 2026.

Hanna Folsz is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Stanford University. Her research focuses on opposition parties in authoritarian dominant-party regimes, with a particular focus on the challenges and opportunities they face in countering autocratization. More broadly, her work examines the causes and consequences of democratic backsliding, populism, media capture, and political favoritism — primarily in East-Central Europe and, secondarily, in Latin America. She uses a multi-method approach, including modern causal inference and text analysis techniques.

Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the American Political Science Association, among others. She is the co-founder and co-organizer of EEPGW, a monthly online graduate student workshop on East European politics, and a co-founder and regular contributor to The Hungarian Observer, the most widely read online newsletter on Hungarian politics and culture. At Stanford, she is an active member of  CDDRL's Poverty, Violence, and Governance Lab (PovGov).