Academic, Teaching, and Research Staff
Professor Benjamin Lauderdale
Head of Department and Professor of Political Science
Prof Lauderdale’s research is focused on developing new designs for highly multidimensional survey experiments that enable us to better measure key concepts relevant to public opinion and political behaviour.
Academic, teaching and research staff by surname: A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Dr Seebal Aboudounya
Associate Lecturer (Teaching) in International Public Policy & Environmental Politics
Dr Aboudounya’s research interests and expertise include international relations, international development, international institutions, the International Maritime Organization, and African affairs.
Dr M. Rodwan Abouharb
Associate Professor in International Relations
Dr Abouharb’s research places particular emphasis on understanding how both domestic and international socio-economic processes affect the human security of citizens around the world.
Dr Valentina Amuso
Lecturer (Teaching) in Political Economy and Comparative Politics
Dr Amuso’s research focuses on the role of government agencies in shaping regulatory approaches to innovation, as well as the decision-making mechanisms that underpin these approaches.
Dr Samer Anabtawi
Lecturer in Comparative Politics
Dr Anabtawi’s (he/him) research is focused on the study of authoritarianism, contentious politics, domestic and transnational LGBTIQ+ movements, law and society, and Palestinian politics.
Professor Phillip Ayoub
Professor of International Relations
Prof Ayoub’s (he/him) research bridges insights from international relations and comparative politics, engaging with literature on transnational politics, sexuality and gender, norm diffusion, and the study of social movements.
Professor Kristin M Bakke
Professor of Political Science and International Relations
Prof Bakke’s research explores how states respond to opposition within their borders, the dynamics of violence in self-determination struggles, post-war state-building and wartime legacies, and geopolitical orientations.
Professor Lucy Barnes
Professor of Political Economy
Prof Barnes’ (she/her) research focuses on the politics of economic policymaking in rich, western democracies (including the UK).
Dr Kiran Arabaghatta Basavaraj
Research Fellow
Dr Basavaraj is interested in interdisciplinary methodological approaches to addressing questions in the social sciences.
Professor Richard Bellamy
Professor of Political Science
Prof Bellamy’s (he/him) research combines intellectual history, analytical legal and political philosophy and comparative politics.
Dr Jack Blumenau
Associate Professor of Political Science and Quantitative Research Methods
Dr Blumenau’s research addresses questions about what voters want, how politicians act, and how these preferences and behaviours interact to affect electoral outcomes and political representation in democratic systems.
Dr George Boss
Research Fellow
Dr Boss’s research explores the political theory of needs, the contemporary politics of need, and the work of Karl Marx, as well as applied topics like poverty, climate change and the future of work.
Dr Jeremy Bowles
Lecturer in Comparative Politics
Dr Bowles works on the political economy of development, mostly focused on sub-Saharan Africa.
Professor Zeynep Bulutgil
Professor in International Relations
Dr Bulutgil’s research is at the intersection of international relations and comparative politics.
Dr Shuk Ying Chan
Lecturer in Political Theory
Dr Chan’s research sits at the intersection of 20th century anticolonial thought, contemporary theories of global justice, questions of empire and race, and ideas of equality and self-determination.
Dr Simon Chin-Yee
Lecturer (Teaching) in International Development
Dr Chin-Yee’s research is focused on climate change, conflict and vulnerable populations – with an emphasis on human security and climate justice on the African continent.
Professor David Coen
Professor of Public Policy, Director of the Global Governance Institute
Prof Coen’s research explores business and government relations, specifically EU business lobbying strategies and the consequences for EU institutional development.
Dr Helen Brown Coverdale
Lecturer (Teaching) in Political Theory
Dr Coverdale has an emerging interest in human relationships with technology, the ethical qualities of these relationships and applications of technology using citizens’ data, as well as the implications for democratic legitimacy, basic rights, and the social justice.
Dr Kate Cronin-Furman
Associate Professor in Human Rights
Dr Cronin-Furman’s research focuses on human rights and on the prevention and punishment of mass atrocities.
Dr Noele Crossley
Associate Professor (Teaching) in International Organisations & International Security
Dr Crossley’s research interests are in the areas of international security and peace and conflict studies.
Dr Marina Duque
Associate Lecturer (Teaching) in International Relations
Dr Duque's research interests lie in understanding how countries achieve status or how status motivates political behaviour
Dr Şirin Duygulu Elcim
Associate Lecturer in Public Policy
Dr Duygulu Elcim's research focuses on the dynamics and processes of international public policy, and the roles of unlikely actors in shaping policy.
Professor Cathy Elliott
Professor (Teaching) and Vice Dean (Education) of the Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences
Prof Elliott (she/her) writes and thinks a lot about education in the discipline of politics in Higher Education.
Professor Marc Esteve
Professor of Public Management
Prof Esteve (he/him) is interested in how to improve the implementation of public services.
Professor Veronika Fikfak
Professor of Human Rights and International Law
Professor Fikfak’s research interests lie in the fields of international law, human rights, and public law.
Dr John Filling
Lecturer (Teaching) in Political Philosophy
Dr Filling's research focuses on political philosophy and post-Kantian philosophy.
Dr Jared J. Finnegan
Lecturer in Public Policy
Dr Finnegan studies climate change and energy politics across the high-income democracies.
Dr Sarah Fisher
Research Fellow
Dr Fisher conducts research in the philosophy of mind and language, with a particular focus on linguistic framing and contextual effects on meaning.
Dr Tom Fleming
Lecturer in British and Comparative Politics
Dr Fleming’s research focuses largely on legislative politics, from both a British and comparative perspective.
Dr Melanie Garson
Associate Professor (Teaching) in International Conflict Resolution & International Security
Dr Garson’s research focuses on the impact of new and emerging technologies on international relations and international security, as well as the geopolitics of the internet, tech diplomacy, artificial intelligence, and information disorder.
Dr Thomas Gift
Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre on US Politics (CUSP)
Dr Gift’s research specialises in comparative politics and political economy, with a focus on US politics, public policy, and applications of survey and experimental methods.
Dr Noga Glucksam
Lecturer (Teaching) in International Security & Foreign Policy
Dr Glucksam’s current research project, ‘Pathways of Reconciliation’, looks at the conceptions and activities of reconciliation in different post-conflict and peacebuilding contexts, and includes the creation of a new dataset of grassroots reconciliation initiatives from around the world.
Dr Fergus Green
Associate Professor in Political Theory & Public Policy
Dr Green's research focuses on questions of justice, politics, law and governance relating to climate change and the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Dr Giulia Grillo
Associate Lecturer in International Relations (Teaching) and Deputy Undergraduate Tutor
Dr Grillo’s research examines peace and conflict, radicalisation processes, and political violence.
Dr Adam Harris
Associate Professor in Development Politics
Dr Harris’s research seeks to challenge the dominant narratives around ethnic voting by investigating how those of mixed ethnic heritage vote, and why some members of a group do not toe the group line, and challenge the assumptions that underline our theories of ethnic voting.
Dr Alexandra Hartman
Associate Professor in Political Science
Dr Hartman’s research focuses on the political economy of institutions in fragile states.
Friederike Hartz
Research Assistant
Friederike is interested in the evolution and political dynamics underlying loss and damage negotiations at national and international level, in particular regarding non-economic losses of Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
Professor Robert Hazell
Professor of Government and the Constitution
Professor Hazell’s research interests cover the whole of the constitutional reform agenda.
Dr Kaleigh Heard
Lecturer (Teaching) in Human Rights
Dr Heard’s research focuses on ethico-strategic dilemmas in warfare, specifically human security issues of strategic relevance to armed forces, including the protection of civilians, children in armed conflict, and conflict-related sexual violence.
Dr Tim Hicks
Associate Professor in Public Policy
Dr Hicks is currently conducting research in three overlapping areas of study: the politics of austerity and of fiscal policy more generally; the politics of economic inequality; and political economy and the media.
Dr Dan Honig
Associate Professor of Public Policy
Dr Honig’s research focuses on the relationship between management practice and organisational structure in delivering welfare-improving services, with a particular focus on the links between citizen voice, bureaucratic motivation, agency autonomy, and performance.
Dr Gerda Hooijer
Lecturer in Comparative Political Economy
Dr Hooijer’s research interests include comparative political economy, comparative social policy, and immigration.
Professor Jeffrey Howard
Professor of Political Philosophy and Public Policy
Professor Howard currently directs the UCL Online Speech Project, which produces empirically informed philosophical guidance on how to improve the digital public sphere.
Professor Jennifer Hudson
Professor of Political Behaviour and Dean of the Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences
Jennifer has published on a wide range of topics analysing elite and mass political behaviour, including public opinion and engagement with development, support for foreign aid, and parliamentary campaigns and elections.
Memta Jagtiani
Associate Lecturer (Teaching) in Quantitative Research Methods
Memta’s research examines the associations between social media use, self-esteem and depression among young people, and how gender and family factors such as family structure, parent-child relationship quality and parenting styles influence these associations.
Lisa James
Research Fellow
Lisa is a Research Fellow on the Constitutional Principles and the Health of Democracy project.
Dr Roland Kappe
Lecturer in Political Economy
Dr Kappe’s research interests cover several substantive fields, including political economy, comparative politics, public opinion and elections, as well as education and social policy.
Dr Beatriz Kira
Research Fellow in Law & Regulation
Dr Kira’s academic work focuses on the governance of digital technologies, and the regulatory and policy frameworks to supervise the economic power of technology companies, including competition law, trade law, and data protection regulation.
Dr Maki Kimura
Associate Professor (Teaching) in Gender and Politics
Dr Kimura’s research interests include: gender and racial equality, social justice, the politics of memorialisation, food security and urban agriculture.
Dr Sarabajaya Kumar
Associate Professor (Teaching) in Voluntary Sector Policy and Leadership
Dr Kumar’s research interests are in accountability, governance, ethical leadership, intersectionality, and equality.
Dr Moritz Marbach
Associate Professor in Data Science & Public Policy
Dr Marbach a political methodologist studying how demographic change shapes, and is shaped by, politics in advanced democracies.
Dr Richard McMahon
Lecturer in EU Politics
My research and publications concentrate on the ways that people think about Europe and nations and how this affects politics.
Dr Emily McTernan
Associate Professor in Political Theory
Dr McTernan defends the significance of social norms and social practices within political philosophy.
Dr Saladin Meckled-Garcia
Associate Professor in Human Rights and Political Philosophy
Dr Meckled-Garcia’s research focuses on finding the links between adopting different ethical theories and the upshots that this has for what we do in practice.
Stefano Merlo
Associate Lecturer (Teaching) in Politics of Economic Policy
Stefano’s research considers how countries should manage their public debt and inflation if they truly want to be sovereign and democratic, by combining research on macroeconomic governance with democratic theory.
Prof Nils Metternich
Professor of Political Science
Prof Metternich’s current research interests include authoritarian regimes, protests and civil wars, with a methodological focus on forecasting, spatial econometrics and network analysis.
Professor Neil Mitchell
Emeritus Professor of International Relations
Prof Mitchell works on human rights, conflict, issues of leadership and accountability, and the role of non-state actors.
Dr Jonathan Monten
Associate Professor in Political Science
Dr Monten’s research interests are in the areas of international relations, international security, and U.S. foreign policy.
Dr Ali Naghieh
Lecturer (Teaching)
Dr Julie Norman
Associate Professor (Teaching) in Politics and International Relations
Dr Norman has a diverse research portfolio with interests in conflict, political violence, and divided societies.
Dr Tom O'Grady
Associate Professor
Dr O'Grady’s (he/him) research focuses on political economy, political behaviour and political parties in the UK and Europe.
Dr Michal Ovádek
Lecturer in European Institutions, Politics and Policy
Dr Ovádek’s research is focused on the interaction of law and politics in the European Union, both in the judicial and the legislative arena.
Dr Marina Cino Pagliarello
Associate Lecturer (Teaching) in Capstones
Dr Pagliarello’s research interests are in public policy, with a keen focus on social policies.
Professor Tom Pegram
Professor in Global Politics
Professor Pegram’s research interests include the theoretical and empirical study of global politics (international relations (IR)/global governance), global policy implementation, as well as complex system dynamics, with particular expertise in the substantive domains of human rights, climate change and global risk.
Dr Denny Pencheva
Lecturer (Teaching) in European Public Policy and Politics
Dr Pencheva’s research interests are within the field of European and British politics, with a particular emphasis on Brexit, migration, labour and welfare policies.
Dr Michael Plouffe
Associate Professor of International Political Economy
Dr Plouffe’s research examines topics that tend to fall within the scope of analytical political economy, with a particular emphasis on the interactions between domestic and international phenomena.
Professor Lauge Poulsen
Professor of International Relations and Law
Prof Poulsen works on the politics of international trade and investment, with a particular focus on international economic law.
Dr Colin Provost
Associate Professor of Public Policy
Dr Provost’s research focuses on regulatory governance and regulatory compliance, with a particular focus on state and federal regulation in the United States.
Professor Claudio Radaelli
Professor of Public Policy
A political scientist specialising in public policy, Prof Radaelli’s research interests include: the policy process of the European Union; the effects of EU policies on the Member States; the roles and usages of expertise, narratives and ideas in public policy and administration; regulatory reform; and regulatory analysis tools.
Dr Aparna Ravi
Lecturer (Teaching) in International Political Economy
Dr Ravi’s research interests are at the intersection of international and comparative political economy, with a focus on foreign direct investment, globalization and business-state relations, development finance, and labour politics.
Professor Alan Renwick
Professor of Democratic Politics and Deputy Director of the Constitution Unit
Prof Renwick’s research focuses on the mechanisms through which citizens can engage in formal democratic politics and policy-making, particularly elections, referendums, and citizens’ assemblies.
Professor Meg Russell
Professor of British and Comparative Politics and Director of the Constitution Unit
Prof Russell is responsible for most of the Constitution Unit’s research on the British parliament.
Dr Behar Sadriu
Lecturer (Teaching) in International Relations and International Public Policy
Dr Sadriu has published on a wide range of topics analysing the international politics of the post-Ottoman world and international relations theories, including debates on security, identity and foreign policy.
Dr J-P Salter
Associate Professor (Teaching) in Public Policy
Dr Salter’s main research interests are in regulatory politics, with two overlapping strands.
Dr Luis L. Schenoni
Associate Professor in International Relations
Dr Schenoni’s research explores the determinants of international conflict and its effects on the dynamics of state and nation building, with a particular focus on Latin America.
Dr Daniel Schulte
Associate Lecturer in Qualitative Methods
Dr Schulte's interests include morality policy, human rights, authoritarianism, nationalism, and political methodology, with a regional focus on Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Professor Christian Schuster
Professor in Public Management
Prof Schuster’s current and recent research projects are on people analytics and people management in government.
Dr Andrew Scott
Lecturer (Teaching) in Public Policy
Dr Scott is primarily interested in energy and environmental policy, particularly regarding the oil and gas industry.
Dr Mike Seiferling
Lecturer in Public Finance
Dr Seiferling’s research is focused on the links between macroeconomics, finance, accounting, and political science.
Dr Ruxandra Serban
Associate Lecturer (Teaching) in Comparative Politics
Dr Serban's work involves developing creative mixed-methods research designs to explore questions related to democratic accountability processes and procedures, particularly in connection to parliaments.
Dr Judith Spirig
Lecturer in Political Science
In her research, Dr Spirig seeks to find answers to questions about the determinants and consequences of exclusionary attitudes (in particular immigration attitudes) and judicial behaviour by leveraging in-depth case knowledge and quasi-experimental research designs.
Professor Marc Stears
Director of UCL Policy Lab and Professor of Political Science
Prof Stears is an internationally regarded academic, political strategist, speechwriter and executive educator, who specialises in creating dynamic collaborations between academic researchers and broader society.
Dr Sherrill Stroschein
Reader in Politics
Dr Stroschein’s research examines the dynamics of ethnic or religious identity in politics, in democratic states as well as democratising states or hybrid regimes.
Dr Bugra Susler
Lecturer (Teaching) in International Organisations and International Conflict and Cooperation
Dr Susler’s research areas include foreign policy analysis, emerging powers, and international conflict and cooperation.
Professor Adam Swift
Professor of Political Theory/Political Philosophy
After early work on the communitarian critique of liberalism, Prof Swift’s interest in combining political theory with empirical social science led to a project interrogating social mobility data, and people’s beliefs about social justice, from a normative perspective.
Professor Lisa Vanhala
Professor of Political Science
Prof Vanhala is interested in the politics of climate change and the socio-legal study of human rights and equality issues.
Dr Manuel Vogt
Associate Professor
Dr Vogt’s research and teaching interests stand at the intersection of international relations and comparative politics, with a particular focus on non-state actors and contentious politics in developing countries.
Professor Albert Weale
Emeritus Professor of Political Theory and Public Policy
Prof Weale’s most recent book, Modern Social Contract Theory, explores the variety of forms modern social contract theory has taken.
Dr John Wilesmith
Lecturer (Teaching) in Political Theory
Dr Wilesmith’s (he/him) main areas of interest are social justice, egalitarianism, liberalism, analytic methods, and applied issues of economic ownership and control.
Dr Eleanor Woodhouse
Lecturer in Public Policy
Dr Woodhouse’s research spans comparative politics, public administration and public policy. I aim to better understand how agency relations function in modern governance.
Dr Kalina Zhekova
Lecturer (Teaching) in Political Science
Dr Zhekova’s (she/her) current research focuses on Russian foreign policy and military interventions in the post-Soviet space and the Middle East, and Russian collective (mis-)conceptions of state sovereignty and relations with the West.