Angie Jo

Angie Jo is a PhD candidate in Political Economy at MIT.  Her research examines differences in how wealthy democratic countries insure themselves against the risk of large collective crises—such as the Financial Crisis, COVID-19, and climate change-induced natural disasters—and recover from their aftermath.  She is interested in how societies conceive of the proper role of the state in protecting public welfare, and in what moments the meaning of welfare itself can change.

Angie holds a Master of City Planning degree from MIT, during which she studied master-planned cities and industrial policy in Asia. Prior to MIT, she worked in macroeconomics research at Bridgewater Associates and earned an A.B. in Architecture from Harvard, where her thesis on Brutalist civic buildings won the Hoopes and Bowdoin Prizes. Angie has held leadership positions at Harvard Effective Altruism—a forum exploring how to best use limited resources to help others the most—and Diversity/Equity/Inclusion working groups at MIT to expand representation in academia.

Raised in South Korea, Canada, and the US, Angie speaks English, French, and Korean, and enjoys writing, running, and dancing salsa.  She looks forward to meeting lifelong friends and mentors through the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholarship.