Sebastian Łucek

I am a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University and the Steven and Debi Wisch Fellow at the Center for South Asia for 2026-27. My research examines how religion, group identities, and social hierarchies shape and are shaped by democratic politics.

My work has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Politics and has received the Kenneth D. Wald Best Graduate Student Paper award from APSA's Religion & Politics section. My research has been generously supported by the National Science Foundation, the King Center on Global Development, the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, among others. At Stanford, I am a member of the ID2 Lab.

I hold an MA in Political Science from Stanford and an AB in Economics from Brown University. Before my doctoral studies, I lived in India, Senegal, and Nigeria and conducted field-based research on development policy and governance as a Senior Associate at IDinsight. I also contributed to Giving Green and a screenwriting project for a TV series based on Indian politics. Outside academia, I am an avid musician specializing in classical guitar along with sitar, which I have studied in the Hindustani classical tradition of the Maihar-Senia Gharana for the past 15 years under the guidance of V.W. Chitnis and at the Ali Akbar College of Music.

Research

Peer-reviewed publications

• “The Effects of Religious Communication on Gendered Political Attitudes: Experimental Evidence from Colombia” (with Radha Sarkar and Sofía Elverdin). Forthcoming, Journal of Politics.
  Winner, Kenneth D. Wald Best Graduate Student Paper Award, APSA Religion & Politics. Honorable Mention, Weber Best Paper Award, APSA Religion & Politics.

Working papers

• “Strategic integration: understanding when and how dominant-group elites promoted social integration of marginalized groups in colonial India.” Under Review.
• “National narratives, social norms, and compliance with state policy: experimental evidence from India” (with Prerna Singh and Saurabh Pant).
• “Costly visibility: vegetarianism and the politics of group identity in India” (with Deepika Padmanabhan and Radha Sarkar).
• “Losing my religion: how democratization shapes religiosity in Eastern Europe” (with Hanna Folsz).

Early-stage projects

• “States, citizens, and gurus: why religious leaders become political brokers”
• “How do protest movements shape inter-group relations? Evidence from the Ottoman Caliphate movement in colonial India” (with Rabia Kutlu-Karasu).
• “Status threats and the politics of majoritarian nationalism: evidence from a political pilgrimage” (with Pavithra Suryanarayan and Roxanne Rahnama).

Teaching