I am a Lecturer in Comparative Politics at Fordham University; Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania; and independent Research Adviser.
My academic expertise focuses on information, representation, responsiveness, and distributive politics at the level of local governments in India and field research and survey methods. My published research focuses on South Asia, but applied and ongoing research addresses new contexts including the United States, Mexico, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. My work has been published in Electoral Studies, Party Politics, and Perspectives in Politics.
From 2019 through 2022, I continued my focus on democracy and the experience of marginalized populations in the Global South as a senior researcher on the Civic Integrity and Central Integrity Teams at Facebook (now Meta). Here, I was at the forefront of content moderation research related to violence incitement, hate speech, and equity concerns between racial and religious groups globally. My research, which included fieldwork and remote research in India, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Bangladesh, shaped large-scale policies that reduced the spread of harmful content and rumors in the global south by millions of views (See my portfolio here for details). Since leaving Meta in 2023, I have conducted research as a Research Adviser with non-profits, think tanks, and research organizations focused on democracy, elections, and disinformation including National Democratic Institute, Community Change, Co-Lab Research, and The Global Institute.
Ongoing and future academic research includes local governance on India; social media and its implications for attitudes and democratic norms; and local information in U.S. localities. On India, I am studying bureaucratic responsiveness and relationship politicians’ and bureaucrats’ targeting and policy preferences; the roots of local competition and its consequences for service delivery; and the role of local politicians in climate policy implementation. On social media, I am exploring the effects of repeated exposure to misinformation and hate on social attitudes. On information/misinformation in the U.S., I am working on projects that examines media ecosystems and the role of local misinformation in the US. I am also developing a civics education program targeting adults with a pilot expected in LA in summer 2025.
I returned to teaching courses on democracy and democratic systems in 2025. Since returning to the classroom where I teach a form of civics education, I have developed an approach to brining civic education and context to students and adults. You can read about this work in my substack. A proof of concept article based on a pilot is expected in summer 2025.
Contact Information
Email: mschneider45@Fordham.edu; mark.allan.schneider@gmail.com