I’m Siddhu Pachipala.
What does a free society require—from its citizens and its institutions—to remain free? I pursue this question in the American context through (1) empirical social science, (2) political theory, and (3) civic action.
Empirical social science:
Across the United States, communities respond very differently to immigration and demographic change. I am conducting original research on whether local civic capacity—the density and strength of PTAs, churches, unions, and voluntary associations—helps explain why some counties absorb change with stability while others fracture. If so, civic infrastructure may be a concrete lever for strengthening cohesion in pluralistic societies. I have written about the need for partnerships between social scientists and cities to translate such findings into practice for MIT Science Policy Review.
Previously, at MIT GOV/LAB, I studied how generative AI could be used to moderate contentious political debates (like on gun control and DEI) to take out some of the heat and improve deliberative quality. My address at MIT’s Envisioning the Future of Computing Prize on this topic led to MIT launching its first Generative AI and Democracy Symposium, in partnership with 3 HBCUs and Tribal Colleges.
Concerned by how social fragmentation manifests at its most tragic extremes, I developed early-intervention AI tools for suicide-risk detection, supported by the American Psychological Association and the U.S. Air Force and covered by NPR. This work earned 9th place at the Regeneron Science Talent Search.
Political theory:
I study ancient and modern political philosophy to understand the kind of citizen a republic needs to sustain itself—and to compare that ideal to the character our contemporary institutions tend to form. To this end, I have brought Publius into conversation with modern post-liberals in Oxford Political Review to examine how a revived practice of federalism could generate moral solidarity, and I have drawn on John Stuart Mill to analyze campus free-speech culture for CNN Opinion. I am an editorial assistant at National Affairs, a magazine that applies political theory to today’s challenges.
I see political theory as a way of making explicit the rival philosophical commitments beneath everyday political disputes, which can help us approach our political opponents with more seriousness and care. So at MIT Concourse, I serve as head teaching assistant for a weekly seminar of fifty first-year students debating questions of patriotism, charter schools, and monogamy. I am also a teaching assistant for a first-year fundamental questions course on Plato and Aristotle.
I completed an independent study of Plato’s Gorgias, a dialogue about rhetoric and its proper place in politics, and spent a summer studying political theory at the Hertog Political Studies Program.
Civic action:
Our lack of a coherent, shared civic education is increasingly visible. I started re:FOUNDING, a civic-education initiative that pairs primary sources from American political thought with contemporary TikToks and Tweets and pilots these curricula in K–12 classrooms. I am speaking at the Jack Miller Center’s National Summit on Civic Education this May to expand this work. My essay about the importance of this kind of education in the university won the Buckley National Undergraduate Essay Contest.
Beyond the classroom, I raised $31,000 and mobilized more than 170,000 signatures to oppose a Texas bill that would have removed racial history from K–12 civics curricula, an effort covered by USA TODAY and awarded Top 10 Changemakers Under 25 by Change.org. I believe thoughtful writing can help reform the character of institutions and have used investigative reporting toward that end: for Newsweek on a scammy Texas water agency run by billionaires ahead of a major court case; for The New York Times on the slipperiness of Pell Grant funding; for Slate on the hyper-competitive spirit of the high school science fair; and for Teen Vogue on College Board’s ideological bias.
I have spent some time in national partisan politics, too: I wrote talking points about Biden-era policies in the federal government (in an agency that has now been DOGE’d) and persuaded across divides in battleground states on a presidential campaign (that lost).
I am an MS3 and Squad Leader in The Paul Revere Battalion, Army ROTC’s 2nd Brigade; I anticipate service in the Reserves.
When I’m not doing any of that, I pretend I can taste the flavor notes in espresso. I do improv comedy. I read Spanish poetry and am learning Ancient Greek, which is exactly as impractical as it sounds. I run half-marathons and have a black belt in Taekwondo. I’m teaching myself to cook Indian food, mostly by vibes. And on Sundays (and many weeknights), I shout at the television while watching the Texans and the Red Sox, convinced this helps.