Welcome

I am a scholar of political elites, currently working as part of the ERC-funded cross-national POLPOP project. The project examines politicians' evaluations of public opinion based on surveys with politicians.

 

I mainly research how political elites conceive of, and respond to, public opinion. I am particularly interested in how political actors' perceptions of public opinion are affected by their backgrounds and by cognitive biases.

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I have published research on how political actors' perceptions of public opinion are affected by motivated reasoning and heuristics, and how UK politicians are dealing with the crisis of political trust. I have also published on the backgrounds of UK politicians, how these affect politicians' behaviour in party leadership contests, and on which types of candidates fare better in contested candidate selection contests. 

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I am currently Visiting Fellow at Kings College London and the University of Southampton. I previously held positions at the University of Antwerp, UCL, and at the University of Manchester where I completed my PhD in 2021.

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On this website you can find out more about my current projects and previous work. I have also conducted research for political parties and charities and am open to future commissions, particularly relating to how political actors respond to public opinion.