Adriane Fresh’s research focuses on political economy and political institutions, exploring how elites respond to major economic and institutional disruptions. She studies a range of historical and contemporary contexts—from the Industrial Revolution in Britain to Black enfranchisement in the U.S. and modern election administration—using quantitative methods, particularly causal inference and natural language processing with historical texts.
At Duke, Professor Fresh teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses, including a foundational methods course for Ph.D. students and a seminar on political, social, and economic institutions. She is also committed to education and justice reform, having taught college-accredited courses in prisons in California and Tennessee. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Duke Endowment, and several other academic and civic institutions.