Mitsuru Mukaigawara, MD, MPP, is a PhD candidate in Government and an AM candidate in Statistics at Harvard University. He studies international relations, political methodology, and political psychology, with a focus on how disease epidemics, health inequities, and their legacy affect public opinion, political phenomena, and political violence at the global level.
Prior to graduate school, Mukaigawara worked globally both as an infectious disease physician and a policy analyst in settings ranging from a remote island in southern Japan to the World Health Organization headquarters. As a physician and social scientist, he has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, and Nature Medicine, on issues relating to clinical medicine, global health, and international relations.
He received an MD from Tokyo Medical and Dental University, trained at the Okinawa Chubu Hospital Internal Medicine Residency and Infectious Disease Fellowship, and received an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Belfer Young Leader / Graham T. Allison, Jr. Student Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a recipient of the Robert Belfer Annual Award for the best master’s thesis in international relations.
Research Interests: political psychology, political methodology, political violence, political behavior and health, and identity and ethnic politics