Xander Slaski completed his doctoral degree in Politics at Princeton University. His research lies at the intersection of international relations and comparative politics, specifically in comparative and international political economy. His dissertation elucidated how international capital and investment flows alter both the choice set of policymakers in the developing world and the perspectives of individuals in developing democracies. 

Before Princeton, he held a two-year position as the head of a research platform at Stanford’s Program on Energy and Sustainable Development. He conducted research on how households in the developing world use energy and how to increase access to electricity and cleaner burning fuels while reducing the climate impact of energy use. He conducted extensive fieldwork for that research and published two papers on the institutional and business frameworks that led to successful programs to change energy usage.