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I am Professor of Politics at the Department of Politics and International Politics at the University of Southampton. I currently hold two Discovery Project grants from the Australian Research Council: “Government Popularity, Political Responsiveness and Democracy in Australia” ($476,138, with Prof Ian McAllister, ANU) and “Place, Identity, and Localism in Populist Politics” ($312,265, with Assoc Prof Benjamin Moffitt (Monash), Dr Rachel Busbridge (ACU), and Dr Mark Chou (ANU)). Furthermore, I am part of the Australian team within the “POLPOP How Politicians Evaluate Public Opinion” project, financed by an Advanced ERC grant.

My research focuses on the development and challenges of democracy, with a special focus on the role of political parties. In particular, I analyse Eurosceptic and radical right populist party behaviour and representation from a comparative perspective. Furthermore, my research focuses on voters’ expectations towards political actors in established democracies and the dilemmas these expectations create for political parties.

Prior to joining the University of Southampton, I was Professor of Politics at the School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR), Australian National University, where I was Head of School from 2022 to 2024. From 2015 to 2019, I was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University, where I was part of the People, Elections and Parties group. Before coming to Australia, I was a research fellow for the DFG-financed project MARPOR – Manifesto Research on Political Representation at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center (2009-2015). I received my PhD in Political Science from Humboldt-University Berlin in 2015. Since 2016, I have been Steering Group member of MARPOR.

I am happy to be Steering Group member for the ECPR Standing Group “Extremism and Democracy“. Together with Daphne Halikiopoulou and Leonie de Jonge, I organize the Standing Group’s participation in all ECPR events, collaborate with the Standing Group on Latin American Politics, and organize the inaugural Extremism and Democracy Biennial Conference at Queen Mary University London, 9-10 June 2025.

You can find me on Google Scholar.