Professor Rumela Sen Named 2026 aiX Faculty Fellow

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Rumela Sen, lecturer in the discipline of international and public affairs and director of SIPA’s Master of International Affairs (MIA) program, has been named a 2026 aiX Faculty Fellow. Through this Google-funded fellowship program, Professor Sen will lead initiatives examining AI's role in international affairs education while developing discipline-specific AI education projects.

The aiX Faculty Fellowship, cosponsored by Columbia's Data Science Institute and Center for Teaching and Learning, brings together faculty across disciplines to explore responsible and ethical approaches to AI in teaching and research. Fellows participate in a January bootcamp and bi-weekly sessions through spring and summer 2026, culminating in a public presentation of their work.

Professor Sen's research focuses on civil conflict, rebel governance, political development, and statebuilding, with a regional focus on South Asia. Her first book, Farewell to Arms: How Rebels Retire without Getting Killed (Oxford University Press, 2021), examines how Maoist rebels in India quit armed groups and return to the same political process they had once tried to overthrow. The book draws on extensive fieldwork in conflict zones in India, where Sen interviewed current and former Maoist rebels and other stakeholders.

She is currently working on her second book on rebel governance and postconflict statebuilding in Nepal, supported by a SIPA Dean faculty grant. Her recent research explores the evolving landscape of digital transnational repression, pre- and post-generative AI. Professor Sen received her PhD in Government from Cornell University and holds master's degrees from Villanova University and Jadavpur University (India). At SIPA, she teaches the MPA core course and a course on political development, and is affiliated with the South Asia Institute and the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace at Columbia.