Erik Wibbels

Erik Wibbels is the Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of PDRI/DevLab@Penn. His research focuses on the human impact of U.S. deportations of Central Americans; studies on the impact of refugees on social cohesion in Kenya and South Sudan; the Machine Learning for Peace project, which measures and forecasts dynamics in civil society at high frequency; and an attempt to use NLP to measure social and political responses to climate change around the world.

In his role with PDRI/DevLab@Penn, Wibbels also works with governments, international donors, and their implementing partners to improve the design and evaluation of development programming and engage in policy-relevant research around the world. As part of its educational mission, PDRI/DevLab works with Pre- and Post-Doctoral Fellows, Ph.D., MA, and undergraduate students through a combination of applied research, internships, and coursework.