Profile

I am currently an Assistant Professor (Lecturer) at the University of Surrey. I am the principal investigator of the Global Public Opinions Project, a cooperative research effort that sets out to advance the knowledge of public opinion and its different components across the world. I am also a team leader for Team Populism, an international network of scholars studying the causes and consequences of populism. Since 2018, I am also an associate editor for the ECPR journal Political Research Exchange.

My research agenda focuses on two interrelated research axes, namely (i) how different components of democracy interact with one another and across different levels of analysis, and (ii) how they potentially challenge each other. This first axis primarily centres on the (lack of) responsive dynamics between citizens and elites. I am particularly interested in comparative political behaviour and public opinion trends, as well as their composition, origins and policy effects. A second research axis constitutes the rise of inequalities, political extremism, and populism more specifically. I am particularly interested how these dynamics challenge liberal and representative components of contemporary democracy.

Currently, my academic contributions have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Acta Politica, Comparative European Politics, Electoral Studies, European Journal of Political Research, European Political Science Research, European Societies, Journal of European Integration, Politics, West European Politics and a number of edited volumes. I am also the co-author (w/ Pascal Perrineau) of the forthcoming book “The current state of affairs: Far right parties in Western Europe” (Palgrave).

I received my PhD from Sciences Po Paris in 2013 with the dissertation entitled “Trans-national diffusion patterns between West European far right parties: Towards a systematic framework of analysis”. I received the highest mention, with unanimous congratulations of the jury. I hold additional degrees from Marquette University and the University of Antwerp. Previously, I held positions as a Humboldt Fellow at the Johannes Gutenberg Universitat Mainz, a Visiting Professor at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE), an FSR Fellow at the Université Catholique de Louvain, an NU Fellow at Northwestern University, an Adjunct Lecturer (ATER) and Research Fellow at Sciences Po Paris, a Visiting Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher at the University of Vienna.