I connect people and ideas.
Hello! I’m Elena, a research community builder moving into AI safety.
I’m a currently Fellow in Sociology at Harvard, where I organize research workshops for graduate students and faculty. I also run editorial operations for Contexts, a national social science magazine.
Things I like to make: introductions, meaningful conversations, tidy spreadsheets.
Check out some of my recent projects.
✉️ elena.vanstee@gmail.com
About me
What I do:
I’m the Managing Editor of Contexts, a magazine that translates social science research to general readers. I work with an 11-person editorial team, our contributors, and the folks who publish and fund the magazine.
Before that, I ran the Contexts blog. I spent a lot of time cold-emailing researchers I admired and asking them to write for us. When someone published a book I liked, I invited them to record a video interview with me.
As a Fellow in Sociology at Harvard, I’ve organized and facilitated 18 research workshops where graduate students and faculty share their works in progress. Many half-baked ideas have become published papers because of the conversations that happened in these meetings.
For my PhD, I’ve talked with more than 300 people about school, careers, and family. I hired a team of 30+ research assistants to make that possible, and mentoring them turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the work.
Organizations have hired me to help them understand their employees and customers. For a recent project, I interviewed software developers to understand how they use an AI coding platform.
I’m a proud member of Fractal Boston, a community built around people teaching each other. I co-host our weekly dinner, which is usually the best part of my week, and I’ve helped plan our more ambitious gatherings, from a weekend retreat to a 50+ person intro night.
Core skills:
Research community building · Operations · Event planning · Mentorship program design · Speaker recruitment · Team management
Education:
PhD in Sociology, University of Pennsylvania (graduating May 2027)
MA in Sociology, University of Pennsylvania (2022)
BA in Sociology and Religion, Calvin College (2019)