Profile
Nathan Combes is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. His dissertation focuses on the public health system in Kenya, and which health services Kenyan politicians are incentivized to provide. In particular, Nathan’s research asks why over 11,000 Kenyan children under the age of five die from diarrhea annually. Through extensive survey research, an audit of the Kenyan dispensary system, and numerous interviews with local politicians, Nathan finds that politicians repeatedly use funds to build clinics, but fail to provide funds to supply them with essential medicines. Nathan is also engaged in researching pedagogy. His most recent project shows that learning gains are maximized when peer instruction questions are conceptually challenging, as opposed to questions that ask students to recall facts from reading or lecture. While at UCSD, Nathan has received the Summer Graduate Teaching Scholarship and his department’s TA Excellence Award.
