Current PhD Students

PhD students in the Department of Political Science form a central part of our research community. Working across diverse areas of political theory, comparative politics, international relations, and quantitative methods, they contribute to the Department’s vibrant academic life through seminars, teaching, and collaborative projects. Below you can find details of our current PhD researchers and their areas of study.

Student Name/Email Title of Doctoral Thesis Supervisor
  4th Year  
Valeriia Babaian Bringing culture back in: Why some legacies outlive others? Noah Buckley
Sofia Jesus The impact of social comparison on support for redistribution and outgroup favouritism Gizem Arikan
Junjie Liu Transfer Learning of Tabular Data for Conflict Forecasting Thomas Chadefaux
Lily Rice

Introducing the Stringency of Sentencing Principles (SSP) Index: How and Why does Sentencing Policy Strictness Vary Across the OECD-38?

Raj Chari
Tianxin Zhang Money, Guns, and Training: How do different sources of funding and resources affect civilian control and military effectiveness? Jesse Dillon Savage
  3rd Year  
Soumiya Benaali Bakkar Gender and the Radical Right: Framing, Mobilisation, and Electoral Change in Western Europe Alexander Held
Eleni Karagianni Disasters, Discourse, and Democracy: Examining the Electoral and Policy Implications of Climate-Related Natural Disasters. Constantine Boussalis
Jamie Mc Clenaghan The costs and consequences of strategic party issue emphasis. Liam Kneafsey
Jennifer Moynihan

Militant Democracy in Theory and Practice 

Peter Stone
Clémence Pellissier Explaining Similarity and Dissimilarity in ICJ and International Tribunals and Court's Cases Matthias Dilling
Juliane Wesselmann

Gender Stereotypes in Political Votes: A Cross-European Comparison.

Gail McElroy
  2nd Year  
Luka De Lacey Winning the Workers: variations in Social Democratic Party strategies chasing a ‘lost’ working class? Liam Kneafsey
Mairi Kachur  Measuring Business Influence in the European Parliament: The Cases of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation and the Digital Services Act Raj Chari
Sarah Magdihs  Between Representation and Contestation: The (Anti-)Gender Politics of Populist Radical Right Parties Gail McElroy
Rubèn Llorens Poblador The Bidirectional Linguistic Voting Gap: A Comparative Approach Tom Paskhalis
Jan Onno Steenweg Political attitudes over the lifecycle. Evolution and mechanisms of attitude change throughout adulthood Gizem Arikan
Lisanne Van Vucht  Russia-Assertiveness in the European Parliament: A Supranational Analysis of Party Positions Matthias Dilling
  1st Year  
Aisling Casey Beyond Consensus: Conditional Support for Military Neutrality in European Union Neutral States Lisa Keenan
Esther Doumen The Shadow of the Past: The Influence of Memory and Identity on Citizens. Responsiveness to Autocratization Jiwon Baik and Matthias Dilling
Nalia Feree Title: Investigating the responsiveness of executive powers to deliberative mini-publics Peter Stone
Aryan Goyal Citizens’ appetite for hate: How everyday citizens navigate rising hateful rhetoric Jeff Ziegler
Solenn Hughes Double Machine Learning and representation learning with satellite imagery Thomas Chadefaux
Alexander Lechner Election Winners and Losers and Their Support for Democracy Gail McElroy