Emily Kurtz

Education & Professional History

University of Minnesota, MS; MA

I graduated from Wellesley College in 2015 with a major in mathematics and a minor in environmental studies. During my time as an undergrad, I worked at NASA for a summer, studied abroad in Budapest, and did an REU at East Tennessee State University. I worked for two years at Epic before joining the Statistics department at UMN, where I was a grad student for three years before transferring to UMN’s Political Science department. I earned my M.S. in statistics in 2022 and my PhD in political science in 2025. If you are a student interested in summer internships, research experiences, study abroad, working in healthcare tech, or grad school, feel free to come talk to me!

Highlights & Recent Activity

I successfully defended my PhD dissertation in August 2025!

Organizations & Scholarly Affiliations

American Political Science Association

Midwest Political Science Association

Society for Political Methodology

I am broadly interested in American political economy, political methodology, and political geography. Much of my work is motivated by the question: why do Americans in many struggling communities resist job retraining and investment in new industries that would help improve their communities’ economic fortunes? I consider many angles from economics, political science, public policy, and data science when exploring this question. If any of this sounds interesting, feel free to visit my website to learn more about the specific projects I am working on or come chat with me!