During the past several years, the School of Social Sciences has undergone substantial growth, increasing its faculty by 20% since 2022. The 2026-2027 academic year continues this upward trajectory with the addition of nine renowned tenured and tenure-track faculty to the School. These newest faculty are bolstering the Departments of Economics, Linguistics, Political Science and Psychological Sciences with their innovative research and superior teaching.
Economics
Marco Bassetto, L. Douglas Lee Professor of Economics, focuses his research on applications of game theory to macroeconomics and the design and consistency of macroeconomic policy, with a particular emphasis on the interactions between fiscal and monetary policy and on the optimal design of tax systems. Before joining Rice University, Bassetto was a monetary advisor in the Economic Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. He has also been senior economist and research advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, professor at University College London, and assistant professor at the University of Minnesota and at Northwestern University. Bassetto received a B.A. from Bocconi University (Milan, Italy) and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago.
Linguistics
Kathy Conklin, professor, is a psycholinguist whose research focuses on how language is learned, represented, and processed in first and second languages. Her research also examines the readability and accessibility of complex texts, like legal and medical communication. Prior to joining Rice, she spent 21 years at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom and earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics and Cognitive Science from the University at Buffalo.
Siyu Liang, assistant professor, is a computational linguist whose research focuses on phonetics, speech recognition, linguistic fieldwork, and fairness across languages and dialects in computational models. His recent work examines low-resource automatic speech recognition for language documentation, the role of tone and phonetic variation in speech recognition, and disparities in speech technologies across minoritized speech communities. By bringing together computational modeling, phonetics, sociolinguistics, and language documentation, Liang’s work seeks to build language technologies that better serve the full diversity of the world’s languages and speakers. He received his B.A. from Georgetown University and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington.
Political Science
Kenneth Lowande, associate professor, studies the exercise of executive power in American politics, with a focus on how presidents, governors, and the bureaucrats beneath them wield authority over matters of life, death, and property. His work spans presidential unilateral action, bureaucratic responsiveness, and legislative oversight, and his 2024 book, False Front: The Failed Promise of Presidential Power in a Polarized Age (University of Chicago Press), earned the American Political Science Association's Richard E. Neustadt Award for best book on the presidency. Before joining Rice, Lowande was an associate professor at the University of Michigan; he received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and his B.A. from Baylor University.
Oren Samet, assistant professor, centers his research on the international dimensions of authoritarian politics and democratization, with a particular emphasis on how opposition actors engage both at home and abroad. Bridging international relations and comparative politics, Samet’s work explores the dynamics of autocratization, how opposition parties compete in unfair elections, and how non-state actors shape foreign policy across borders. Samet received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and, prior to starting at Rice, was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law.
Psychological Sciences
Marc Coutanche, associate professor, is a cognitive neuroscientist whose research examines learning and memory, perception, and developing analytical methods to understand brain function by applying machine learning to neuroimaging. Among other questions, his work asks how we learn, form organized knowledge and successfully retrieve it. Prior to Rice, Coutanche was an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and his B.A. in experimental psychology from the University of Oxford.
Noni Gaylord-Harden, professor, focuses her research on the impact of community violence exposure and traumatic loss on mental health outcomes in Black adolescents and families. The overarching goals of her work are to address disparities in community violence exposure and to develop and implement interventions that promote transformative healing for Black adolescents and families affected by violence. Prior to Rice, Dr. Gaylord-Harden was a Professor at Texas A&M University and Loyola University Chicago. She received her M.S./Ph.D. from the University of Memphis.
James LeBreton, professor, specializes in quantitative methods and industrial-organizational psychology. His research focuses on psychological measurement, advanced statistical methods, and the application of quantitative techniques to organizational topics, including personality, leadership, team processes, workplace misconduct, as well as the development and validation of psychological assessments. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee and joins Rice after previously serving on the faculties of Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, and Wayne State University.
Alyssa (Allie) Sinclair, assistant professor, is a cognitive neuroscientist who studies how people update their memories, beliefs, and behaviors. Her expertise spans learning and memory, belief and behavior change, motivation and emotion, and information consumption. Her research bridges foundational insights about the mind and brain with interventions to promote learning and positive behavior change, relevant to public health, climate change, and education. She received her Ph.D. from Duke University in 2023, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.
"I am incredibly pleased to announce our newest cohort of faculty, who are producing groundbreaking research in their respective fields,” said Rachel Kimbro, dean of the School of Social Sciences. “We are grateful to have these dedicated scholars and teachers as part of the School of Social Sciences community, which will broadly benefit from their contributions.”
Rice University's School of Social Sciences is a vibrant, inclusive community of scholars, students, and educators committed to connecting our teaching and research with policy for the betterment of society. We are seven departments with one mission: to tackle society's greatest challenges with an unconventional vision toward shaping a future that we can all thrive in, both individually and collectively.