Michael Zanger-Tishler

(Sociology & Social Policy)
Ph.D. Date: Spring 2026 (Expected)
Dissertation Title: Data and Knowledge of the Criminal Legal System in a Comparative Perspective
Dissertation Committee: Robert Sampson and Ellis Monk (Co-Chairs); Joscha Legewie, Magda Boutros (Sciences Po), and Christopher Winship
Research Interests: Social Inequality, Criminology, Sociology of the State, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Quantitative Methods, Sociology of Knowledge, Science and Technology Studies

Michael Zanger-Tishler is a PhD candidate in sociology and social policy at Harvard. His dissertation, “Data and Knowledge of the Criminal Legal System in a Comparative Perspective,” is a comparative study of how macro factors related to state structure, organizations, and data restructure the types of questions that social scientists ask and the type of knowledge they create. Based on over 250 interviews conducted in French, Hebrew, Arabic, and English with quantitative researchers, government officials, journalists and activists primarily producing knowledge about the French, American, and Israeli criminal legal systems, he shows how police departments, courts, and prisons strategically release their data, how external actors navigate and develop questions based on available data, and how knowledge of the state and social inequality are conditioned by national data cultures. This research is informed by his work as a quantitative scholar of the criminal legal system, where he studies bias in AI risk assessment tools, disparities in criminal legal system contact, and crime reporting.