The Department would like to welcome six new PhD students to our community. They are as follows:
Nalia Feree
Background:
Nalia holds a Masters' in Political Science from Sciences Po Bordeaux (2021-2026), where she majored in public administration, and a masters' degree in social sciences from the University of Stuttgart (2021-2026), where she majored in a German-French program. She is also the president of the ECMM association (European Competition of Movie-Making) which aims at promoting European cultures by supporting students' movies and allowing them to be shown across the EU.
Research:
Her research aims at better understanding the responsiveness of traditional executive powers towards deliberative experiments. To that end, she plans on comparing Ireland (constitutional convention of 2016) and France (citizen convention for climate 2020).
Supervisor:
She will be supervised by Prof Peter Stone.
Aryan Goyal
Background:
Aryan holds a Masters Degree in Applied Social Data Science from Trinity College Dublin (2023), and a Masters in Political Science from Leiden University, the Hague (2021). He previously worked as a Research Assistant in the Political Science department of Universidad Carlos III, Madrid (2024-2026).
Research:
His research interests include misinformation, political attitudes, democratic backsliding, the far right, ingroup-outgroup behavior.
Supervisor:
He will be supervised by Dr Jeffrey Ziegler.
Esther Doumen
Background:
Esther earned a B.A. First Class in Korean Studies, Minor in English and American Studies (2016 - 2021). Then she earned an M.A. Global Affairs & Policy, with distinction (Program Award for Academic Excellence) from Yonsei University (2022 - 2024).
Research:
Esther's areas of research include: disinformation, media and politics, protest mobilization, and democratic backsliding.
Supervisor:
She will be co-supervised by Dr Jiwon Baik and Dr Matthias Dilling.
Aisling Casey
Background:
Aisling completed an MSc in International Politics at Trinity College Dublin, graduating with Distinction, and a BA in International Relations at Dublin City University, where she graduated with First Class Honours.
Research:
Her research focuses on public opinion and military neutrality, with particular interests in threat perception, institutional framing, survey experiments, and Irish foreign policy. Her doctoral research examines the conditions under which public support for military neutrality may vary in response to changing security contexts.
Supervisor:
During her PhD in Trinity, Aisling will be supervised by Dr Lisa Keenan.
Solenn Hughes
Background:
Solenn completed his undergraduate studies in Mathematics and his MS.c. in International Politics, both at Trinity College Dublin.
Research:
His area of research is mostly on conflict and on using machine learning and satellite imagery for causal inference.
Supervisor:
He will be supervised by Dr Thomas Chadefaux.
Alexander Lechner
Background:
Alexander earned a Master's Degree in Political Science.
Research:
His research interests are are public opinion, political behavior, and elections, which his examines using quantitative data.
Supervisor:
During his PhD in Trinity, Alexander will be supervised by Prof Gail McElroy.
You can learn more about our PhD programme by visiting the webpage here.