Tia Mittle is from Mumbai, India and is working with Professor Susan Ostermann on a variety of projects relating to democracy and development. Most recently, Mittle co-authored a paper with Ostermann on the India–China cybersecurity rivalry and its impact on the 2024 Indian general elections, published in the Taiwan Journal of Democracy in July 2025, after first presenting it at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Mittle is assisting Ostermann in editing the BTI report for Nepal and drafting the 2026 Freedom House Report for Nepal. She is also working with Ostermann and her team on a National Science Foundation project understanding hazard-resilient housing in Hawaii; the project engages with building code compliance and the impact of disasters on Puerto Rico and Alaska as well. For all of these projects, Mittle is conducting literature reviews, integrating data from a variety of sources for an analytical report and contributing to ongoing democracy research.
This summer, Mittle spent eight weeks conducting independent research in Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, India, investigating how voters’ perceptions of male versus female leaders influence their choice of whom to vote for local level political leadership in India, and whether these attitudes then influence female politicians’ choice of whether to run. The research will be contributing to her political science thesis and international development studies capstone.
Mittle serves as a Senior Fellow at the Gender Relations Center, working on Gender Equity and Intersectionality. She leads weekly philosophical dialogue as a God and the Good Life Fellow, assists in teaching first-years Moreau as a Moreau Peer Leader and is the Secretary of the South Asian Student Association. She is also a Diplomacy Scholar at the Nanovic Institute for European Studies. Through the program, she visited NATO headquarters, the EEA and other significant diplomatic institutions in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Mittle spent her Spring ‘24 semester in Washington, D.C. interning for the government relations team at the National Endowment for Democracy. She also spent her summer in D.C. working with the Policy & Impact team at the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO), and is continuing her work as a Poverty Research Fellow at LEO. This past spring (‘25), Mittle studied abroad in London and interned at the Von Hügel Institute housed in St Edmund’s College at the University of Cambridge. Mittle is dedicated to promoting women’s rights, democracy, and development with a focus on South Asia, connecting her research back to her home.
Thesis Title: The Indian Paradox: How Voters’ Perceptions Shape Women’s Political Trajectories
Thesis Adviser: Susan Ostermann
