Maya Sen is a political scientist and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. Her research interests include law, political economy, race and ethnic politics, and statistical methods. Her research has been published in journals such as the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Politics, and has been covered by the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Economist, National Public Radio, and other outlets.

Her newest book, The Judicial Tug of War: How Lawyers, Politicians, and Ideological Incentives Shape the American Judiciary (with Adam Bonica), is now available from Cambridge University Press. Her first book, Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics, is available from Princeton University Press and won the 2019 William H. Riker Book Award for best book published in political economy.

At Harvard, she is the current director of the Stone Program in Wealth Distribution, Inequality & Social Policy, which brings together the social sciences in the study of poverty, inequality, and economic mobility. She is also an affiliate of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.