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Post-1995

Graduates from the PhD programme in Political Science

In 1995 the department initiated an integrated PhD programme incorporating, along with the submission of a doctoral thesis, a taught coursework element including methodological training alongside substantive topics. A number of outstanding theses – including two prize-winning theses – have been completed by doctoral students graduating from this programme. Thus far, the doctoral programme has featured in only one comedy sketch.

For further information, or to communicate any updates or amendments, please contact the department's Executive Officer for Postgraduate Courses at polgrad@tcd.ie

At the moment, the list of graduates from TCD's Political Science doctoral programme is as follows:

2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012

2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002

2023

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Eman Abboud	The Exit Option: How ethnopolitical exclusion influences emigration desire from sub-Saharan Africa	Michelle D'Arcy	Teaching Fellow, Department of Political Science, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Clara Faulí Molas	The role of environmental issues in European elections. Assessing whether European elections establish an electoral connection based on these issues.	Emanuel Coman	Clara was an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Department of Political Science, Trinity College Dublin. In February, Clara started a Postdoc at the University of Vienna.
Dr Samuel Johnston	Choose Your Target Wisely: How the EU Shapes Nationalism in Contemporary Europe	Emanuel Coman	A postdoc in UCD as part of Joseph Lacey's ERC project, ELECT. This project examines the moral agency of candidates, campaign professionals, journalists, and citizens during election campaigns across the US, UK, Germany, and Italy. Previously, was a Teaching Fellow in European Comparative Politics at UCD.
Dr Christian Oswald	Explaining and predicting the adoption, timing and location of terrorism in civil conflicts.	Thomas Chadefaux	At the Center for Crisis Early Warning, University of the Bundeswehr Munich.
Dr Giulia Saydon	Fossil Fuel Interests in Environmental and Climate Policy: Evidence of Influence and Institutionalised Participation	Raj Chari

 

2022

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr David Moore	Start Spreading the (fake) News: The Role of Fear and Anger in the Formation and Dissemination of Conspiratorial Beliefs	Constantine Boussalis	Department of Foreign Affairs on Ireland’s foreign/diplomatic service. Currently posted to the Embassy of Ireland, Abu Dhabi, working as the Consul.
Dr Andrea Salvi	Explaining the variation in rebels violence in civil conflict: a collection of essays on reactive violence, synthetic events, and counterinsurgency practices	Thomas Chadefaux	Senior Analyst at the EU Institute for Security Studies. He leads the analysis of cyber and digital issues, and he is project director of the multi-million EU Cyber Direct project. Before joining the EUISS he worked as project officer responsible for the scientific direction and the development of the DRMKC Risk Data Hub at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. He also served as a human rights statistics consultant for the United Nations Missions in South Sudan. Previously, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at Luiss University (Rome) and as research affiliate at the Center for Research in Leadership, Innovation and Organization conducting research on cybersecurity, cyber-physical critical infrastructures, and high reliability organizations. He is specialised in quantitative methods and in computational social sciences, making use of cutting-edge data technologies to answer security and political questions.
Dr Kristin Semancik	Europeanising Healthcare: The Effects of European Integration on Domestic Systems	Raj Chari
Dr Oguzhan Turkoglu	Essays on Forced Migration and Civil Conflict: Explaining the Effect of Rebel Groups on Displacement	Thomas Chadefaux	Postdoctoral Researcher at Hertie school in Berlin, Germany.
Dr Kevin Lacourse	Just Peace and Presumptive Benefit: Using Fair Play Theory to Explain Political Obligation to Provisional Authority Arrangements	Peter Stone

2021

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Eleonora La Spada	Costly Concessions: The Effect of Fragmentation of Self-Determination Movements on State Repression	Jesse Dillon Savage	Assistant Professor at the University of Strathclyde in the Department of Politics
Dr Marco Schito	State-business relations and the politics of state aid in the European Union: a multi-method approach to explaining aid allocations among member states	Raj Chari

2020

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Somya Chhabra	The Impact of Political Instability on Terrorism: A Mixed-Method Approach	Thomas Chadefaux
Dr Alan Duggan	Campaign Spending and Electoral Integrity: Assessing the Plausibility of the Challenger Spending Efficacy Advantage in Irish & British Elections	Ken Benoit	Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham working as part of the OpenElections UK project. Using OpenElections data, he has contributed to articles published in journals such as 'Electoral Studies' and 'Politics'. He is also a Research Fellow at the University of Stirling working as part of a multi-university collaboration to create a database of third sector and civil society organisations in the UK.
Dr Raluca-Maria Nicoara	Authoritarian diffusion at a distance? China’s impact on levels of and on citizens’ support for liberal-democracy in African states	Michelle D'Arcy	Working in analytics and data science, currently as a Senior Risk Analyst (office job in reinsurance field).

2019

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Silvia Decadri	Electoral Incentives to Cultivate a Personal Vote and Political Particularism: a Text Analysis Approach	Constantine Boussalis	Adjunct Professor in Political Science at the University of Milan
Dr Stefan Müller	Accountability and the Democratic Mandate: Analysing Pledges, Party Competition, and Media Coverage	Gail McElroy	Associate Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at University College Dublin

2018

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr David Barrett	The Effect of Observable Party Cohesion on Voter Choice in Liberal Democracies (Abstract)	Michael Gallagher	Assistant Principal Officer at Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Dr Lisa Keenan	The Underrepresentation of Women in Political Life: The Case of the Republic of Ireland	Gail McElroy	Assistant Professor in Department of Political Science, Trinity College Dublin.
Dr Liam Kneafsey	Media Ownership, Differential Coverage and Effects on Public Attitudes: The Case of News Coverage of Labour Unions	Gail McElroy	Assistant Professor in Department of Political Science, Trinity College Dublin.

2017

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Michele Crepaz	Investigating the Introduction and the Robustness of Lobbying Laws	Raj Chari	Vice Chancellor's Illuminate Fellow at Queen's University Belfast
Dr Andres Hinrichsen	Authoritarian Nostalgia in Post-Communist Europe	Kenneth Benoit
Dr Gavin Morrison	Duties & Obligations in relation to Human Rights	Peter Stone
Dr Miriam Sorace	Quality of Representation in the European Parliament	Gail McElroy	Associate Professor in Comparative Politics, Reading University

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2016

Working for the Strategic Foresight and Planning Office of the European Space Agency as a Foresight Analyst / Project Manager.

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Denise Carolin Huebner	The use of group litigation under EU law.	William Phelan
Dr Stephen Erskine	¿What difference does it make?¿: Electoral systems, representation and ideological congruence in advances industrial democracies.	Gail Mc Elroy	Quantitative Data Analyst at Insight Statistical Consulting

2015

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Mark Canavan	The impact of localism on public goods and services provision (Abstract)	Michael Gallagher	Public Affairs Lead Europe, Sanofi
Dr Mark Carpenter	Understanding Irish lobbying: a comparative case study	Raj Chari	Director of Regulatory & Corporate Affairs, EU & Ireland at Sky
Dr Edmond Coughlan	Electoral violence in Sub-Saharan Africa: 1997–2010	Ken Benoit
Dr Shqipe Mjekiqi	The impact of electoral systems on the behaviour of MPs in newly-democratised countries (Abstract)	Michael Gallagher
Dr Laura Schwirz	The impact of party leadership evaluations on vote choice: a comparative analysis	Gail McElroy & Michael Marsh	Senior Statistician at the Central Statistics Office, seconded to Dept. of Health

2014

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Michael Courtney	The attitudes and social background of parliamentarians (Abstract)	Michael Gallagher
Dr Kevin Cunningham	Explaining variation in support for the extreme right: a two-stage approach	Michael Marsh	A full time lecturer in politics at TU Dublin. Also runs a polling company, Ireland Thinks, in addition to some consulting work for political parties across Europe and polling companies in the UK. Worked in politics for a number if years in the UK and Ireland prior to that.
Dr Caroline McEvoy	Representing Europe's citizens: an analysis of political representation in the European Union	Gail McElroy	Technical Writer & Document ManagerTechnical Writer & Document Manager Xtremepush
Dr Carolina Plescia	Split-ticket voting in mixed-member electoral systems: a theoretical and methodological investigation WINNER of the 2014 Jean Blondel PhD Prize	Michael Marsh & Kenneth Benoit	Associate Professor at the University of Vienna, Department of Government.
Dr Seppe Verheyen	The potential for party switching among the electorate	Michael Marsh

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2013

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Magdalena Staniek	Political parties in new and established democracies: explaining party pluralism, party unity and party death"	Kenneth Benoit
Dr Mirjam Allik	Women's descriptive representation in national parliaments	Michael Marsh
Dr Henrik Hermansson	Stakeholder influence in the European Commission's stakeholder consultations	Robert Thomson
Dr Catherine Riordan	Post-conflict governments 1975–2004: designing effective assistance	Kenneth Benoit

2012

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Patrick Theiner	The politics of the global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria	William Phelan
Dr Raimondas Ibenskas	Explaining party splits and mergers in Europe	Gail McElroy & Kenneth Benoit	Professor in the Department of Comparative Politics at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Dr Justin Leinaweaver	Explaining the variation in state commitment to environmental treaties	Robert Thomson
Dr Adriana Bunea	Lobbying Brussels: interest groups' demands and networks in EU environmental policy	Robert Thomson & Gail McElroy	Professor in the Department of Comparative Politics at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Dr Séin Ó Muineacháin	Explaining the persistence of factionalism in parties (Abstract)	Michael Gallagher
Dr Jennifer Brett	The effectiveness of development aid: the role of political institutions	Robert Thomson
Dr Thomas Daubler	The creation of party election manifestos: how context affects content	Ken Benoit
Dr James Cross	Decision-making in the European Union: explaining outcomes through negotiation and deliberation	Robert Thomson

2011

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Matthew Wall	Politics as usual or exceptional elections? A comparative study of sub-Saharan Africa's multiparty systems	Ken Benoit
Dr Maciej Gorecki	Habitual voting: origins and consequences	Michael Marsh

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2010

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Zbyszek Zalinski	Media agendas, public opinion and elections: evidence from Ireland and the United Kingdom	Michael Marsh
Dr Maria Laura Sudulich	Cyber-space oddity? An analysis of political parties’ websites and online campaigning (Abstract)	Michael Gallagher
Dr Jane Suiter	Chieftains delivering: political determinants of capital spending in Ireland 2001-07	Michael Marsh

2009

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Leonardo Baccini	Explaining the new regionalism: the political economy of trade agreements	Gail McElroy & Robert Thomson	Professor of International Political Economy in the Department of Political Science
Dr Ecaterina McDonagh	'Democracy from the outside in': effectiveness of normative pressure and conditionality	Ron Hill
Dr Ken McDonagh	Exceptional wars: identity and intervention in the US war on terror	Eddie Hyland	Head of the School of Law and Government in DCU.
Dr Shane Mac Giollabhuí	The secret life of political parties: a comparative study of candidate selection in African democracies (Abstract)	Michael Gallagher
Dr Rory Costello	Bicameral politics in the European Union	Gail McElroy & Robert Thomson	Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of limerick.
Dr Shiera El-Malik	Presupposing the subject, avoiding ideology: international relations, post-colonialism, and identity	Nalini Persram
Dr Slava Mikhailov	Measurement issues in the Comparative Manifesto Project data set and effectiveness of representative democracy	Ken Benoit
Dr Jos Elkink	An agent-based model of democratic diffusion	Ken Benoit
Dr Nicola Grenham	The politics of financial services regulation: reform and design in a footloose world	Raj Chari
Dr Damien French	Deliberative democracy, deliberative polls and citizens' juries	Eddie Hyland

2008

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Nat O'Connor	The democratization of information: freedom of information and democracy in Ireland	Eddie Hyland
Dr Liam Weeks	We don't like (to) party: explaining the significance of independents in Irish political life (Abstract)	Michael Gallagher
Dr Vanessa Liston	Microcosms of democracy? Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and their impact on political attitudes and behaviour in Kenya	Ken Benoit

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2007

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor
Dr Alex Baturo	Presidential institutions and democracy: The political economy of succession and term limits	Ken Benoit	Associate Professor in Political Science at DCU
Dr Brighid Brooks Kelly	An exploration of the relationship between consociationalism and stability in plural societies throughout the world (Abstract) WINNER of the 2008 PSAI Basil Chubb prize	Michael Gallagher
Dr Garrett O'Boyle	'How can they justify it to themselves?' Theories of justification and political violence	Eddie Hyland
Dr Matt Kerby	Comparative ministerial turnover in Canada, 1867-2000	Ken Benoit

2006

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Karen Devine	Public opinion and Irish neutrality: a theoretical and empirical test of the 'rational public' hypothesis	Eddie Hyland & Michael Marsh
Dr Maura Conway	Reality bytes: cyberterrorism and terrorist 'use' of the Internet	Nalini Persram	Paddy Moriarty Professor of Government and International Studies at DCU
Dr Pat Lyons	The Mirror and the Lamp: public opinion in the Republic of Ireland since 1970	Michael Marsh
Dr Eoin O'Malley	Give them awkward choices: a theoretical and empirical investigation into the operation of prime ministerial influence on policy in 22 countries (Abstract) WINNER of the 2006 inaugural PSAI Basil Chubb prize	Michael Gallagher	Associate Professor in political science at the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University

2005

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Eric Shea	European merger control policy: private interests, policy communities and entrepreneurship	Raj Chari
Dr Patrick Bernhagen	The political power of business: structure and information in public policymaking	Eddie Hyland
Dr Fiachra Kennedy	Stability and change in the choice available to voters: the set of potential leaders of government. An aggregate level study of eleven European countries, 1950-1999	Michael Laver & Michael Marsh
Dr Gemma Carney	Intellectual and 'real world' feminism: mainstreaming international gender norms in the Republic of Ireland	Nalini Persram
Dr Anna Gwiazda	Europeanisation and Polish competition policy	Ken Benoit	Professor of Comparative Politics in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London.
Dr Susanna Pearce	The double-edged sword: the impact of religion on the intensity of political conflict	Ken Benoit

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2004

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Francesco Cavatorta	The international dimension of democratisation: the case of Algeria	Nalini Persram	Professor in the Department of Political Science at Université Laval in Quebec, Canada.
Dr Lucy Mansergh	Do parties make a difference? The relationship between government intention and government output in the public policy sphere: the case of governments in Ireland 1977-1997	Michael Laver
Dr Brendan Howe	Comparative military interventions: the question of legitimacy	Nalini Persram

2003

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Jane O'Mahony	The European Union policy process: policy making in the Community pillar	Patrick Keatinge & Brigid Laffan	Senior Lecturer in European Politics University of Kent

2002

PhD Awarded To	Title of Doctoral Thesis	Supervisor	Where Are They Now
Dr Heinz Brandenburg	Agenda building: a time-series analysis of the changing issue priorities of parties and media during the 1997 general election campaign in the UK	Michael Marsh	Senior Lecturer in Politics Strathclyde University
Dr Jacqueline Hayden	Explaining the collapse of communism in Poland: how the strategic misperception of Round Table negotiators produced an unanticipated outcome	Ken Benoit
Dr Mary-Clare O'Sullivan	Messengers of the People? An analysis of representation and role orientations in the Irish parliament (Abstract)	Michael Gallagher	An Coimisiún Toghcháin, Ireland's New Electoral Commission.
Dr Karin Gilland Lutz	The responsible party model and European integration in Ireland	Ken Benoit & Michael Marsh

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