Hannah Riley-Bowles, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy Center for Public Leadership

Hannah Riley Bowles is a Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. She conducts research on micro-mechanisms of inequality and focuses much of her work on gender in negotiation and women's attainment of leadership positions. Her research appears in academic publications, such as the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Psychological Science, and Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. She is the faculty director of Women & Power, the Kennedy School's executive program for women leaders from the public, private and non-profit sectors.

Research Assistant Skills: The work involves a range of activities, such as conducting literature searches and reviews, constructing online surveys, creating experimental materials, running experiments, and data preparation. The applicant should be detail-oriented, motivated, and eager to learn. Course work in psychology or sociology is beneficial, but not required.

2014 Research Assistant Reflection:

As a government concentrator with a particular interest in women in politics, working with Professor Riley Bowles and on a project about female gubernatorial candidates was a wonderful experience. I improved my qualitative research skills which has benefited by studies since. I am extremely grateful to the Institute of Politics for this opportunity!

-Hannah Phillips '15

2012 Research Assistant Reflection:

I worked with Hannah Riley Bowles on a variety of projects on negotiation, focusing on the effects that status and gender have on negotiation processes and results. Throughout the semester, I greatly appreciated Professor Bowles’ understanding of the fact that undergraduate RAs are first and foremost students, and that she and her assistant tried to make every project as meaningful and educational for me as possible. As a result, I got an opportunity to practice research skills (from literature searches to survey design to creation of word search puzzles) and to learn quite a bit about a highly relevant phenomenon. On top of that, I am sure that many of the things that I’ve absorbed throughout the semester will be useful in a practical sense, for example when I have to negotiate for a salary once I graduate. Working with Professor Bowles has been a pleasure!

-Zuzanna Wojcieszak ‘13