Amy Catalinac

Amy Catalinac is an Associate Professor of Politics and Director of Undergraduate Studies at New York University's Department of Politics. She specializes in Electoral Systems, Distributive Politics, and the Politics of Contemporary Japan, employing text-as-data analysis and quasi-experimental methods. Her research examines how electoral systems influence politicians' behavior, particularly focusing on Japan's political dynamics and geographically targeted spending.

Dr. Catalinac holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University's Department of Government and undergraduate degrees from Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Otago in New Zealand. She has conducted extensive research in Japan, including living there for several years and studying at the University of Tokyo. She serves as an editor at the Journal of Politics and organizes academic initiatives like the Japanese Politics Online Seminar Series (JPOSS) and the Frontiers in Empirical Research on East Asia (FEREA) conference.

Her work emphasizes creating accessible datasets for scholarly use and exploring intersections between programmatic policies and clientelism. She has held prior roles as a Research Fellow at the Australian National University and is a Faculty Associate at Harvard's Program on U.S.-Japan Relations. Her research bridges quantitative methods with qualitative insights, particularly in analyzing Asian political systems.