Mitchell Scholar
Class of 2024
Nakayama Scholar
Hometown: Las Vegas, Nevada
Major: Public Policy
Minor: Psychology
Chloe Nguyen is a Baldwin Scholar and Political Engagement Project Fellow who is passionate about understanding the psychological drivers of intergroup conflict like political polarization and developing interventions to address them. Toward that end, she's conducted research with Polis, Sanford's Center for Politics, and the Peace and Conflict Neuroscience Lab at University of Pennsylvania. With Polis, she developed a pilot program and suggestions for classroom teaching to improve political discourse on college campuses based in psychology research. At UPenn, she analyzed the impacts of competitive victimhood and negative meta-perceptions on anti-democratic policy support. Now, she's working with Braver Angels and Polis to hold debates on controversial topics amongst the campus community to help reduce affective polarization. While she values the potential of interpersonal solutions to depolarize, she also recognizes the need to address systemic political and financial incentives to worsen conflict. Toward that end, she plans to pursue a degree in internet, communications, and civil rights law, to figure out how to best reduce disinformation and hate speech online while protecting free speech and civil liberties. Outside of this work, she writes for The Ninth Street Journal and is the president and founder of the Duke Justice Project, an organization working to reduce mass incarceration and assist people who are formerly incarcerated with re-entry. Beyond academics, she enjoys hockey, running, and discussing all kinds of music.