Dr. David D. Laitin is the James T. Watkins IV and Elise V. Watkins Professor in the School of Humanities and Science. After completing his BA from Swarthmore College, he went into the Peace Corps to volunteer in Somalia and Grenada. His research focuses on how language and religion can connect nation to state. He has conducted field research in Somalia, Yorubaland, Catalonia, Estonia, and France. Most recently, Dr. Laitin has published several papers relating to ethnicity, war, and terrorism. In 2016, he established the Immigration Policy Lab with Jens Hainmueller. 

Professor Laitin's presentation applied text analysis and machine learning tools to an analysis of social media, to determine where migration issues are most salient, whether the messages focus on economic challenges or legal rights, and whether sentiments change with significant events, such as terrorist attacks or mass deaths of drowned asylum seekers. By analyzing the data from millions of tweets sent by elected representatives on issues relating to immigration and refugees, Professor Laitin aims to determine a measurable pulse of how elites across the globe represent the immigration issue to their constituents.