Hello! 

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Stanford University, on the 2026–2027 job market. I study American political behavior and institutions, with a focus on elite communications, religion and politics, and partisan identity. 

My research combines original data collection, computational text analysis, causal inference, and survey research to trace religious narratives across party platforms and congressional communication. I examine how political elites use religious rhetoric to define party identity, legitimate policies, and appeal to voters. 

My research has been published in Politics and Religion and in a chapter in the edited volume Reconsidering Parties and Partisanship (University of Michigan Press). Before Stanford, I worked as a research analyst at Ipsos, designing and analyzing survey experiments.

I also enjoy teaching, having extensive experience as a teaching assistant starting as an undergraduate. I'm currently serving as the 2026-27 Graduate Teaching Fellow at Stanford's Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. 

Outside of academia, I enjoy hiking, reading Brandon Sanderson books, exploring new playgrounds with my daughter, and working on my farm in Stardew Valley. 

I can be reached at alenasmith@stanford.edu