Dr. Juan S. Gómez Cruces earned his Ph.D. in Political Science at Georgia State University. His dissertation entitled Digital Divides and Dialogues: A Multidimensional Analysis of Populist Rhetoric, Social Media Interaction, and Societal Polarization in Latin America addresses how populists in power use social media and the implications of their communicational strategies. Dr. Gómez Cruces’ research has been published in the Journal of Computational Social Science and as a chapter contribution in the forthcoming volume The Ideational Approach to Populism, Volume II: Consequences and Mitigation. In the past, he collaborated as Graduate Research Fellow for the Digital Threats to Democracy and Elections initiative at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Currently, Dr. Gómez Cruces is Postdoctoral Researcher in Digital Governance, Technology and Policy at the Hasso-Plattner Institute. 

Research Focus 

Substantively Dr. Juan S. Gómez Cruces’s research interests focus on comparative political behaviour, technology, populist rhetoric, polarization, Latin America. Methodologically, he is interested in Computational Social Sciences, text analysis, Large Language Models. 

Publications 

• Gómez-Cruces, Juan S. “Forecasting executive approval with social media data: opportunities, challenges and limitations.” Journal of Computational Social Science (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42001-024-00299-y. 
• McCoy, Jennifer, Juan S. Gómez-Cruces, Ozlem Tuncel, & Levente Littvay. Forthcoming. “Reducing Partisan Animus in Populist Contexts: Limitations of Shared Common Humanity and Perspective-Taking Interventions.” Chapter 14 in The Ideational Approach to Populism: Consequences and Mitigation, edited  by Angelos Chryssogelos, Kirk A. Hawkins, Eliza Tanner Hawkins, Levente Littvay, & Nina Wiesehomeier. Routledge Series: Extremism & Democracy. 
• Carlin Ryan, E. & Juan S. Gómez-Cruces. 2022. “Trust in Latin American Governing Institutions.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Political Science. Ed. Sandy Maisel. New York: Oxford University Press.

Projects 

• Path to Power 
• “Interactions with Populist Leaders in Latin America on Social Media: A text-classification analysis using BERT.” 
• “Populist Rhetoric Depiction of Elites: Shadowy yet Ubiquitous?” (with Adrien Halliez) 

Teaching 

• Instructor - Global Issues, Department of Political Science, Georgia State University. 
• Instructor - Democracy & Civil Society, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Estado de México, México.  
• Instructor - Comparative Public Administration, Social & Administrative Sciences, Universidad Abierta y Distancia de México, México. 

Education 

• Ph.D. Political Science Subfields: Comparative Politics and Research Methods Committee: Dr. Ryan E. Carlin (Chair), Dr. Jennifer McCoy, and Dr. Michael P. Fix. Georgia State University. 2024. 
• M.A. in Political Science, University of Colorado, Denver. 2017. 
• B.A. in International Relations, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. 2007. 

Experience 

• University of Potsdam, Hasso-Plattner Institute - Post-Doctoral Researcher in Digital Technologies, Governance and Policy. 

Awards and Recognition  

• Atlanta Area Computational Social Science Data Showcase Award, Emory University, Atlanta, GA. 

Conferences  

• “Interactions with Populist Leaders in Latin America on Social Media: A text-classification analysis using BERT" Presented at the 2024 Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA. 
• “Populist Rhetoric Depiction of Elites: Shadowy yet Ubiquitous?” (with Adrien Halliez) Presented at the 2024 Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA. 
• “Forecasting Executive Approval with Social Media Data: Opportunities, Challenges and Limitations" Presented at the 2023 American Political Science Association Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, CA. 
• “The Two Dimensions of Populists in Power Rhetoric and their Online Engagement: Evidence from Presidential Twitter/X in Latin America" Presented at World Association for Public Opinion Research, X Latin American Congress on Public Opinion in Oaxaca, Mexico, 2023. 
• “Reducing Partisan Inter-group Conflict through Shared Common Humanity and Perspective-taking: Using Holistic Content Analysis to Examine Null Experimental Results, Compliance, and Breakdown of the Mechanisms" (with Jennifer McCoy and Özlem Tuncel). Presented at the Second Helsinki Conference on Emotions, Populism, and Polarisation, 2021.