The Hoover Student Fellowship Program

Conduct advanced research and work on special projects for your mentor, often including:

• Executing online research.
• Collecting, synthesizing, and analyzing data.
• Analyzing trends and reporting on current events in each respective fellowship area.
• Writing summaries and memorandums on requested topics as well as proofread and help edit materials.

Assist with operational duties, often including: 

• Scheduling and prepping for meetings
• Building and maintaining distribution lists for event and/or research dissemination
• Responding to correspondences on behalf of your mentor or Hoover research initiative
• Crafting marketing materials or project output 
• Supporting general Hoover events or programs related to your project

At the culmination of the fellowship, all student fellows will complete a final presentation based on their work in the program. Each participant will present their work to the Director of the Hoover Institution, Hoover Fellows and Staff mentors, and their peers in the program.

Additional: student fellows expected to perform other related duties as requested. The fellowship will be structured to maintain flexibility and tailoring based on staff or fellow needs.

• Fully-enrolled Stanford undergraduate (sophomore, junior, or senior) of any major
• Any Stanford graduate student (GSB, SLS, any Masters program, and PhD program)
• Students must commit to the fellowship position from Autumn 2025 through Spring 2026
• Students with strong interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills. Emphasis on flexibility, attention to detail, and ability to work efficiently and independently in a fast-paced environment.

Questions? Contact Ted Penner at pennert@stanford.edu for more information!

There are over 40 projects available for students to apply to in the HSFP 2025-26 program. Projects are sorted in alphabetical order, and in order to encourage students to apply to projects based on interest, we do not list the names of project mentors in the project directory.

AI-Assisted Decisions in the Field of Energy

AI-assisted decision making in the field of energy presents some avenues for potential advancement and decentralization of the current power system. This research project will utilize experimental economics methods to propose and test the efficacy of electricity management tools that incorporate AI approaches meant to facilitate decision making. Students will design economics experiments and develop the needed software solutions that would enable behavioral studies of AI-assisted energy management ideas. Prerequisites include fundamental knowledge of microeconomics, experience in computer programming, and curiosity in AI-assisted possibilities to improve economics of electrification.

AI-Generated News Content: Scope, Detection, Impact

AI chat-bots are widely employed by ordinary users to produce content, but less is known on how AI is used by professionals, particularly in the media, and how audiences consume AI news. The student fellow will engage in empirical work studying AI impact on the news ecosystem across media and social media. Technical skills in AI generation and detection would be a plus.

Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear Weapons

This project will consist of assessing Defense Department acquisition programs that may be related to nuclear weapons operations, including but not limited to nuclear command and control for feasibility and appropriateness of incorporating artificial intelligence functionality. The student fellow would require some technical familiarity with PDF documents and databases, as it will be necessary to create a large interactive database from DOD documents containing descriptions of relevant programs. It would be desirable if the student has basic familiarity with the strengths and especially the limitations of AI. A programming background is also helpful.

Automated Domain-Specific LM Red Teaming through Reinforcement Learning

This project develops reinforcement learning–based adaptive stress testing to improve the reliability of language models in safety- and security-critical applications. Existing automated red teaming often yields unrealistic, nonsensical jailbreaks, providing limited value for real-world deployment. Instead, this work focuses on uncovering likely, naturally occurring domain-specific failure modes in cybersecurity and user mental health contexts. By doing so, the project strengthens safeguards against adversarial misuse, reduces individual harm, and improves reliability. In addition, the generated insights of this project will be crucial for policymakers on the limitations of current systems and the need for responsible deployment. Prerequisites: Coding and AI/ML experience (e.g., through taking CS/AI courses like CS229)

Bio-Strategies and Leadership

Bio-Strategies & Leadership (BSL) seeks Hoover student fellows to join a multidisciplinary team whose mission is to empower leaders to make good decisions involving biotechnology soon enough to matter. Ongoing BSL work focuses on biotechnology innovation, economic and technical competitiveness, national security, biosecurity, and advancing biotechnology in ways that strengthen freedom and democracy. Student fellows will contribute original research on these topics and support other essential program tasks. Ideal candidates will be entrepreneurial, driven, and passionate about making an impact. Candidates with a background in biology and policy are preferred but by no means required.

Civics Program Support 

Revitalizing American Institutions (RAI) has launched several initiatives to promote high-quality, pluralistic civic learning. Among them is the National Civics Fellowship, a prestigious visiting fellowship that connects and amplifies the most influential voices in American civic education. RAI has also created the Alliance for Civics in the Academy, a nonpartisan network of university educators developing courses and academic programs in civic education. The student fellow will contribute to both programs, as well as RAI’s other civics-related projects, by helping develop a civic education resource database, providing research and administrative support to NCF fellows as needed, assisting in the creation of professional development content, organizing events, distributing a short biweekly newsletter, and supporting other project needs as they arise. Desirable qualifications include strong organizational skills and a demonstrated interest in American politics and government, education policy, or civic education.

Classical Leadership

The purpose of the project is to study great leaders of the ancient world (from Britain to Iran) and to capture their lessons for leadership today. Transformational vision and oratorical ability were hallmarks of classical leadership, and we will emphasize those qualities. The student fellow will read, in collaboration with the mentor, ancient texts (in English translation), scholarship in ancient history, and social-science scholarly literature on leadership. The mentor will co-teach a Stanford course on classical leadership in winter quarter 2026 and plans to write a book on the subject.

Commercial interest Rates in Late Imperial China

Looking for a student to read through letters of Qing dynasty and Republican period merchants and scrape for interest rate data. Knowledge of Chinese and preferably classical Chinese is a must. Attention to detail is essential. It will be hard work but you will learn a ton about economic history.

Contemporary Indian Politics and Diplomacy - Strengthening US-India Relations 

The student fellow for this project will provide research support for scholarly and policy-oriented work focusing on the relationship between the United States and India. Work will include support in preparing background material and reports for key meetings of Hoover’s Program on Strengthening US-India Relations. Applicants should have a strong interest in India, economics, energy, or security. Data visualization skills are a plus; no language skills are required.

Emerging Markets Working Group

A student fellow is sought to assist on one or more projects in the area of emerging markets and developing economies. The collaboration aims to develop a framework for informed risk-taking that will enable more private capital to flow in socially beneficial ways to developing world infrastructure projects. Enabled by more transparent returns and risk data, an influx of private capital investment has the potential to reverse decades-long shortages in global infrastructure investment and provide a successful counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The research assistant will be responsible for building a solution using AI to integrate all of this information effectively, leveraging historical learning more efficiently. The job would also include streamlining presentations, writing, and maintaining social media platforms.

Evaluating Decision-Making Reliability and Consistency in LLM Reward Models

This project studies and improves the reliability of reward models, used in large language model training. These reward models encode expert decision-making tendencies, ethical values, and other human judgments we currently cannot easily capture with simple metrics for training. This work evaluates the stability, consistency, and nature of reward models to strengthen robustness and enhance interpretability of failure modes across domains. Beyond improving technical reliability, the project will generate insights on how embedded values influence outcomes, informing policymakers and the public on the safety and governance of decision-making AI systems. Prerequisites: Coding and AI/ML experience (e.g., through taking CS/AI courses like CS229)

Future of Work, Health Access, and AI Technologies in Emerging Markets

This research agenda examines health access innovations, digital work, and AI technologies in shaping the future of work in emerging markets, with the long-run goal of informing pathways to bring 100 million people into the workforce in middle-income countries by 2040. Student Fellows will support projects through literature reviews, policy memos, employer- and labor-market data analysis (with a focus on India and comparable contexts), stakeholder interviews, and drafting of research outputs. Ideal candidates will have a background in economics, public policy, political science, or related fields, with proficiency in data analysis or prior RA experience, an interest in AI and labor market policy, and strong organizational skills to manage multiple tasks and document progress effectively.

Government Trust and Congressional Representation

This project will involve research assistance on a project related to reasons for the decline in trust in the US government. We are analyzing how congressional voting has changed over time, including the extent to which it corresponds to district versus donor opinion. As part of this project, we are collecting public opinion data as well as data on congressional voting. The student should be familiar with Excel and comfortable with web-based databases. A willingness to help with other projects for the Center for Revitalizing American Institutions (RAI), especially ones on Congress, would be a plus.

Higher Education in an Age of AI and Political Polarization

This project investigates how higher education adapts to transformative forces in the economy and society. We use large-scale data on U.S. college course offerings and descriptions to study two related questions: (1) how political ideology shapes the content and availability of courses, and (2) how emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, are influencing curricula. The work combines data science, text analysis, and economics to identify patterns and measure the impact of political and technological change on the academic landscape.

Hoover History Lab

The Hoover History Lab conducts policy-relevant historical research on how our world came into being, the way it works and where it might be headed, including the main drivers of change. Student fellows who are knowledgeable in the following areas are especially desired: Arabic language and the United Arab Emirates; Chinese language and geopolitical rivalry with China; technology (biotech and AI); Africa; demography and immigration; the Korean Peninsula war and peace; India & South Asia; Science, Tech, & innovation; and The United States.

Human Security Project

This Human Security Project investigates how authoritarian regimes sustain power and how democratic movements can challenge them. By examining historical cases and contemporary strategies across regions and eras, the project identifies opportunities for resistance and develops evidence-based approaches to advance freedom. Students will operationally support the team in producing accessible, pro-democracy resources and educational initiatives, including tools for practitioners and policymakers, gaining hands-on experience translating research into practical, and real-world strategies and implementation. Students with experience in event planning, scheduling, interviewing, marketing, and social media are desired.

Impact of Changing Education Decision Making

While states are the primary decision makers in education, the federal government assumed a much greater role with the accountability required in 2001 under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Growing dissatisfaction with NCLB led to a reversal of authority back to the states with the 2016 federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and this has moved further with the current administration’s efforts to substantially reduce the U.S. Department of Education. This project uses the impact of moving from NCLB to ESSA on student achievement to inform the current policy discussions. The work will focus on changes in teacher quality and in student accountability on achievement and will involve quantitative modeling of impacts. Familiarity with Stata and with basic econometrics is required.

Indo-Pacific Maritime Strategy

The United States is entering a time of change when it comes to the future of the established allied and partner security architecture in the Indo-Pacific. The student fellow would support a group of interdisciplinary fellows who are focused on utilizing allied and partner relationships to augment warfighting capabilities in the maritime space to deter potential conflict. The student fellow would produce a series of memos and briefs on the changing environment in the Indo-Pacific to inform this work. Experience or familiarity with the US military, US Department of Defense, maritime environments, or emerging warfighting technologies would be helpful.

Innovation, Development, and Adoption of Energy-Related Technologies

The energy sector is experiencing rapid changes in demand growth, resource mix, governance structures, and opportunities for new markets. These changes stem from both the micro and macro levels. Technological innovation and alternative organizational approaches are emerging as responses to various energy-related challenges (old and new), but the success and pathways from prototyping to large-scale adoption can vary immensely. This research project will focus on tracking the latest technological advancements, classifying them, and identifying pertinent conditions that affect the cost, speed, and scale of adoption. A selected student would produce summaries on the latest developments by identifying and tracking relevant news channels, academic publications, announcements by government agencies, webinars, blogs, podcasts, etc., while synthesizing the collected information into databases that track innovation, regulation, policy decisions, which affect the development and adoption of energy-related technologies. Applicants should have a strong interest in economics, energy and policy of technological change. 

Investing for National Security

The U.S. has a range of national security supply chain vulnerabilities rooted in insufficient or non-existent domestic (or allied) industrial capacity. Examples include semiconductors, ship building, critical minerals mining and processing, biologics, and energetics for weapons, to name a few. The project examines the characteristics of various private sector investment strategies (e.g., venture capital, private equity, sovereign wealth funds, etc) to diagnose why they have not traditionally invested in such industrial capacity and identify changes in market conditions that could change their incentives. Coursework/prior experience in economics, finance, or investment preferred but not strictly necessary.

Making Government More Effective and Affordable

This project includes analysis of major tax, spending, and regulation policies, detecting areas that need improvement, and suggesting viable reforms. Student fellows will document areas that need considerable improvement and develop reform proposals. Strong interest in policy and empirical methods (e.g., relevant Econ, Pub Pol or Poli Sci coursework), familiarity with basic CI courses, and computer program skills (e.g., Stata) are preferred.

Markets vs. Mandates for the Environment

This project is seeking students to help with the preparation of a book examining tradeoffs of market-driven and regulatory mandate approaches for promoting environmental quality. Whereas mandates rely on politics and administrative rule-making to assign objectives and command-and-control mechanisms to achieve them, markets rely on incentives of resource owners and entrepreneurs to discover and respond to environmental demands of populations – whether this is for stable climate, cleaner air or water, or more biodiversity. Students will gain experience with assisting the development of a manuscript. They may also gain experience researching and potentially coauthoring shorter pieces drawn from the primary research for the book. A background in economics, political science, or environmental science (e.g., biology, ecology, hydrology) is fitting.

Modern Federalist Blog

The Modern Federalist is a blog that launched during the Summer of 2024 and features contributions by Hoover fellows who explore contemporary policy issues through the lens of federalism. Specific duties include gathering information for blog posts, reviewing relevant literature, editing longer documents, communicating with guest contributors, editing, and, if appropriate, designing graphics. Excellent written communication skills are required; familiarity with blog platforms and maintenance is preferable but not required. The ideal candidate has some working knowledge of federalism and political institutions.

Navigating Geopolitical Risk

This project is examining the ways in which seismic changes in geopolitics today are affecting the business landscape. Businesses of all sizes and in every market are contending with new and amplified risks. These risks include trade wars and tariffs, protectionist policies and regulatory changes, supply chain vulnerabilities, rising political instability and conflicts, and disruption caused by AI and other emerging technologies. The student fellow will help identify and conduct background research on companies contending with these risks and how they navigate them. The ideal candidate has a demonstrated interest in national security, economics, and/or business.

Nepotism

How prevalent is nepotism? How have societies tried to curb it, and which institutions worked? This project examines nepotism and the various means that have been used to constrain it (mameluks, eunuchs, janissaries, inheritance restrictions, etc.). Students will work on a database of polities using both historical and contemporary data.

NSF SECURE Analytics: Safeguarding the Research Enterprise 

American innovation thrives on international collaboration yet needs tools to mitigate and prevent foreign interference in research. SECURE Analytics is a project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that equips researchers to make better, risk-informed decisions about collaboration. We seek a student fellow to support the project’s data collection, analysis, and reporting activities, especially publications on critical dimensions of global science and technology. Any of these qualifications are preferred: advanced reading capability in Chinese, Farsi, Arabic, or Russian; experience in collecting and analyzing primary source materials; data science skills, especially in pulling, cleaning, and analyzing large volumes of data using APIs.

Policymaking and Power in the American States

This project examines the power dynamics between the three branches of government across the fifty U.S. states and their consequences for public policymaking over time. Student fellows would be collecting information on the features of various state institutions (e.g., the structure of state judiciaries, executive branch agency leadership) and policy outcomes (e.g., court cases, executive orders, regulations). Relevant coursework could include intro to American politics, state and local government, executive branch politics, and public policy. Prior research experience is desirable but not required.

Redefining Vocational Education in Brazil

Vocational education in Brazil is undergoing a transformation. This project evaluates two different ways of doing vocational education in Pernambuco, Brazil. The first iteration looks at renewable energy curricula. The second looks at after school vocational programs in computer programming. Basic statistical understanding is needed; knowledge of Portuguese is a plus.

Renewing Indigenous Economies

This project is seeking students to participate in research evaluating the causes and effects of economic development on Native American and First Nation land in the US and Canada. The research will contribute to the Hoover Institution’s Renewing Indigenous Economies program. It will consist of case study evaluations of tribal economic successes and failures as well as statistical analyses that will evaluate data across Indian Country. Students will gain experience with assisting the development of one or more research papers and may have opportunities to present the research at forums for tribal leaders and students, and to audiences of academic faculty. A background in social science – e.g., economics, political science, sociology – or law is fitting as is a desire to conduct rigorous empirical analysis.

Rural Engagement

Recognizing America’s increasing geographic polarization, and Stanford’s comparative lack of engagement with rural communities, this role will focus on expanding opportunities to engage with rural communities. This individual will assist with the People, Politics, and Places Fellowship (3PF), which places students from urban and suburban backgrounds in rural communities throughout the country. The purpose of this project is to advance efforts to understand and engage American institutions in a rural context, expand understanding of domestic rural life and values, and develop the capacity for engaging constructively across differences. The student fellow will support this work by identifying potential internships in rural areas and organizing a series of events throughout the year that focus on geopolitical polarization, rural politics, and constructive dialogue. Desirable prerequisites include strong organizational abilities and a demonstrated interest in American politics, the urban-rural divide, environmental science/sustainability, or related fields.

Shultz Energy Policy Working Group: Taiwan's Energy Security and Energy Statecraft Projects

The George P. Shultz Energy Policy Working Group conducts a variety of research projects around what we call “energy statecraft”—that is, the use of US energy strengths as a tool to pursue our strategic goals, both domestic and international. We are seeking student research assistance in support of a long-term project concerning Taiwan’s energy system and its energy security. Ideal qualifications for this project would include familiarity with the energy industry, energy statistics and terminology, and high-level competency in traditional Chinese. Student fellows could be considered for other working group research projects based on interest and qualification.

Stalin's Terror in the 1930s

This project seeks to use the latest material on Stalin’s repressions and purges of the 1930s to reconstruct the lives, hopes, and fears of the Soviet population during that consequential period. The book that results will examine the goals of the Soviet leadership, as well as the responses of the peoples of the USSR, to the challenges of the totalitarian dictatorship. It would be useful, though not necessary, if the student assistant would know Russian and/or Ukrainian.

Superpower California: Subnational Power in the Global Commons

Federalism matters: California plays an outsized role in the global economy and imagination. If California were a sovereign nation, it would be the world’s fourth largest economy. California, however, is not a nation-state. It is a subnational entity. Research for Superpower California seeks to answer the following questions: What is the global role that California plays within the federal and international system? How does it interact with sovereign states, promote its commercial interests, protect its critical infrastructure, reside in cyberspace, secure its borders, assert its diverse values and preferences, and align with America’s broader foreign policy on the global stage?

The Global Resilience Intelligence Platform Partnership (GRIPP)

The Global Resilience Intelligence Platform Partnership (GRIPP) is an applied research project championed by major international institutions such as the World Bank to build both an innovative 21st century AI powered platform that forecasts and explains the political and institutional resilience of countries around the world and a global multi-stakeholder partnership of major stakeholders in the field (such as the World Bank, the United Nations, Government Agencies, Humanitarian NGOs, Multi-National Companies, Think and Do-Tanks, etc.) that are committed to collaborate both proactively and reactively to minimize fragility, conflict and violence as well as to strengthen political and institutional leadership and capacities in countries around the world to achieve sustainable development and security.

The Long-Run Effects of Civics Education

The goal of this project is to identify the causes and consequences of mandated civics instruction in the United States. The main objective is to develop a longitudinal dataset that pinpoints which student cohorts, under state policy, were required to complete some form of civics instruction or demonstrate civics proficiency before graduating high school. The data will be used to analyze the factors that predict states’ commitment to or retrenchment from civics education and to assess the long-term effects of civics exposure on outcomes such as adult civic engagement and political attitudes. Strong computer and programming skills are required, with experience in Stata and/or R strongly preferred, along with excellent communication skills and attention to detail.

The Origin of the Endless Frontier and its Route to Success

At the close of World War II, engineer and science administrator Vannevar Bush delivered his landmark report, "Science, The Endless Frontier," to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Tasked with charting a course for American science after the war, Bush’s vision shaped U.S. science policy for decades, laying the foundation for the modern research university, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the nation’s global leadership in science and technology. As part of a new project at the Hoover Institution, the goal is to look beyond the present state and take into account the massive criticism towards the present research ecosystem. In order to define what a reformed version of such an ecosystem could look like, boundary conditions given by restrained resources, massive engagement of the private sector in certain areas of science, international competition especially with China, including the overarching goal to retain intellectua,l and technological leadership where it matters are to be taken into account. This subproject requires research to establish the context of the origins of the “Endless Frontier” until ~ 2000. How was the mission accomplished? What were major achievements as well as disruptions? If, when, how and why did the implementation start to deviate from the original intent. Students with a broad S&T interest are well suited to contribute to the project.

The Planned Economy of the USSR: Through Interviews with Planners

Despite its collapse in the early 1991s, the planned economy still holds considerable appeal (example China). We now have databases of practitioners who worked in ministries and planning agencies. We have accumulated this survey information in the Hoover archives. It would be useful, but not essential if the student fellow knows Russian.

The Politics of Moderation

The distance between Democrats and Republicans has become unusually large, potentially leaving an opportunity for one to pick up votes by nominating centrist candidates. Is this true? Are swing voters more moderate than other voters? Are they more likely to vote for moderate candidates? Would moves to the center be offset by lower turnout among base voters, who are more extreme? Familiarity with survey data and data analysis tools (R and/or Python), and APIs for accessing LLMs are preferred.

The US-India Energy Corridor - US-India Energy Cooperation 

The student fellow for this project will provide research support for scholarly and policy-oriented work focusing on the US-India energy partnership. In addition to supporting work for a series of white papers on US-India energy policy, the student fellow will also help arrange background material for workshops and events. Applicants should have a strong interest in American foreign policy, India, and/or energy. Data visualization skills are a plus; no language skills are required.

Trust in Science: What Changed and Why?

The US’ global leadership in science and technology started with the implementation of “Science, The Endless Frontier” under President Roosevelt which created the research ecosystem that’s still in place today. While trust in science and technology was common for decades, a much more skeptical view of both is becoming more and more prevalent. The role of research universities to perform research and educate the next generation by attracting the best and the brightest, wherever they come from, was commonly understood as fundamental to the success of the US ecosystem and in fact copied many other nations. When did trust fade away and why? What are major contributing factors especially in the last two decades? Students with a broad S&T interest are well suited to contribute to the project and help develop a broad vision on what might be changed institutionally to help reverse the trend.

Understanding Geographic Polarization Beyond the Rural-Urban Dichotomy

Political divides are routinely described as a conflict between rural and urban places. This project challenges the idea that all political behavior can be explained by the urban-rural divide. To that end, we seek to uncover the true cultural, economic, and political differences—and similarities—across places in America. The goal is to design and test strategies that foster understanding and solidarity across geographic lines. The student researcher will synthesize relevant literature, gather and analyze data, and participate in the design and implementation of survey research.

Wargaming and Crisis Simulation Initiative

This project will include facilitating and analyzing wargames, collecting and curating materials for wargaming archives, and researching historical wargames.

When Affirmative Action was Black and White

The Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admission marked a turning point in affirmative action: Asian American students, rather than white students, emerged as the central challengers. This project explores how that reframing shaped the policy’s downfall, and how debates over fairness in admissions connect to a broader set of education controversies. From battles over exam schools, to fights over standardized testing, to disputes over honors classes and equity, questions about meritocracy run through nearly every level of education. Student fellows will contribute to the book project by reviewing legal and media sources and assisting in the analysis of survey data related to attitudes about education and meritocracy. Candidates with interests in education, politics, or law are encouraged to apply; experience with data analysis (Stata, R, or Python) is a plus but not required.

Who is Winning the New Cold War? The Impact of Great Power Competition

From battleships to television networks, China, Russia, Europe, and the United States have invested in developing instruments for exercising power worldwide. The dimensions of this competition vary from region to region, but the security, economic, and normative interests of these great powers increasingly clash on every continent, especially in key flashpoints such as Ukraine and Taiwan. To date, much scholarship in the West on Cold War 2.0 has focused on identifying American and Chinese intentions and capabilities, as well as, to a lesser extent, those of Russia, Iran, Europe, and Japan. Much less attention has been given to assessing the concrete impact of policies aimed at influencing the type of regime or foreign policy orientations of targeted countries. This project seeks to address that gap by adopting a comprehensive and dynamic approach to studying American, Chinese, Russian, and European tools of influence over time. Students will assist with research and writing tasks. Previous research experience, as well as excellent foreign language skills preferred.

Working Group Citizenship Self-Assessment Project

Within Hoover's Center for Revitalizing American Institutions (RAI), the Working Group Citizenship Self-Assessment Project addresses America’s dual crises of abysmal civics education and irresponsible citizenship. Via research, communication, and advocacy, it engages participants within Hoover and beyond in deliberation, debate, and pursuit of workable consensus. The student fellow will help develop an online citizenship self-assessment and assist with a periodic newsletter, as well as provide staff support for meetings of the working group itself. Excellent written communication skills are required; proficiency with basic statistics is a plus but not required.