Maya Sen is a political scientist and Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Sen writes on issues involving the political economy of U.S. race relations, law and politics, and statistical methods. Her research has been published in journals such as the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Politics, and has been covered by the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, and other outlets. Her latest book, Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics (Princeton University Press), won the 2019 William H. Riker Prize for best book in political economy. She is currently working on a book on how American courts become politicized (under contract with Cambridge University Press).

Sen graduated in 2012 with a Ph.D. from the Department of Government, Harvard University. She also holds an A.M. in Statistics and an A.B. in Economics, both from Harvard University, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School, where she was a member of the Stanford Law Review.