Hi, I’m Helen Hsi and I am a writer who examines both fact and fantasy. I am passionate both about translating first-hand research into new and original insights and indulging in fantasy to reveal something unexaminable from a pure academic exercise.

In my original research, I leverage semi-structured interviews for gathering qualitative data as well as cutting-edge data analytic methods–including differences-in-differences, regression discontinuity, regression analysis, and instrumental variables–to try and untangle fact from fiction. This work tries to distinguish causal relationships and attempts to categorize the world in specific buckets.

On the flip side, in my fantastical writing, I want the reader to be confused between fact and fiction. I want to create something tumultuous in the mind. I want the reader to feel the angst and messiness of hearing voices and receiving messages from the psychotic world. I want the reader to witness the discord of having multiple voices speaking to them at the same time through my narratives.

I graduated from Cornell University with honors in Industrial Relations and a concentration in Labor Economics. I was also a Dupont Fellow and PhD candidate at MIT’s Sloan School of Management focusing on Labor Economics.