Mae MacDonald

Mae MacDonald is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science, Knight-Hennessy Scholar, and Graduate Fellow at the Immigration Policy Lab at Stanford University.

Mae studies the international politics of forced displacement. Her research asks how host governments respond when war forces civilians across borders, and how donor governments and international institutions within the refugee regime shape those responses. This agenda bridges international security scholarship on the civilian consequences of war with international political economy research on how institutions, law, and foreign aid shape state behavior.

Mae’s work combines novel cross-national datasets with micro-level evidence using surveys, experiments, archival research, and interviews. Her research draws on four years of fieldwork across East Africa and Southeast Asia, building on earlier work with Syrian and Afghan refugees as an aid worker in Europe. 

Mae is the recipient of the Ric Weiland Award for excellence in the School of Humanities and Sciences and the Centennial Teaching Assistant Award for outstanding teaching. Before beginning doctoral studies, she worked with refugee organizations in Greece and the UK and as a researcher at YouGov, conducting public opinion research for government and the public sector. Mae holds a B.A. (Double First Class) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford.