Political Scientist & Researcher

I am Alexandra "Alex" Mathieu, a political scientist focusing primarily on international relations, Japanese politics, and East Asian security. I received my PhD in Political Science in Feb. 2025 from the Graudate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. My dissertation, “Unpacking International Status in the Japanese Context” addresses three issue areas within the study of international status, with the goal of clarifying theoretical gray areas and testing hypotheses that are key pillars in the research program. Specifically, I re-evaluate and reconceptualize the social identity approach to the study of international status and use Japanese survey data to first test whether status is distinguishable from individual biases towards/against countries and later clarify the relationship between national pride (in the forms of nationalism and patriotism) and status dissatisfaction. Altogether, the dissertation encapsulates my two fundamental research and academic goals: 1) to understand how non-material factors like beliefs and identities impact political decisionmaking, processes, and outcomes and 2) to challenge the Western-centric bias of the study of international relations using cases and data from East Asia, when possible.

I am currently the Japan Foundation Postdoctoral Associate of East Asian Studies at Yale University’s Council of East Asian Studies, where I am teaching and continuing to refine the papers that make up my dissertation for future publication.

Outside of academia, I’m a lover of art in all forms and an avid player of video and board games. I’m currently taking swim lessons to work on my admittedly mediocre swim skills, studying Japanese to maintain my fluency, and as part of a year-long NYE challenge…learning amateur magic…