Coffee Chat with Antoine Banks and Ernesto Calvo
The Experimental Research Lab at the Department of Government and Politics is a hub for cutting-edge, data-driven research on American politics. By combining experimental rigor and interdisciplinary insight, the lab investigates how Americans confront evolving cultural and political landscapes, redefine relationships across communities, and how these dynamics shape the collective narrative of our democracy. Through its flagship Omnibus Survey, the lab expands access to high-quality data collection, broadens the scope of research, and creates pathways for the next generation of scholars. Lab members gain hands-on experience with research methods, including survey design in Qualtrics, determining appropriate sample sizes for hypothesis testing, and incorporating AI-powered analytical tools. The lab cultivates collaboration across disciplines, blending political science with insights from psychology, sociology, and behavioral economics to tackle complex questions that inform both scholarly debates and public policy. If you are interested in joining, please reach out to either of the lab co-directors, Antoine Banks or Alejandro (Alex) Flores.
Ernesto Calvo is a Professor at the Department of Government and Politics (GVPT) and the Director of the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Computational Social Science (ILCSS) at the University of Maryland, College Park. The iLCSS provides technical support and computational resources to GVPT students working on projects that use large observational and experimental datasets. The iLCSS also collects original data, including digital trace data, social media data, and survey; and assists in using Large Lenguage Models (LLM) in two in-house computers. Former students affiliated with the iLCSS have worked at Facebook, Twitter, and the Inter-American Bank, and held post-docs at Duke, NYU, and Houston. We have collaborated in research projects with the IADB, RTI, Chequeado, and currently have active projects with the iSchool in a Grand Challenges' projects at the University of Maryland.