Dr Tom O'Grady
Biography
I have been a Lecturer in Quantitative Political Science at UCL since 2017. Before that, I did my PhD in political science at MIT.
Research
My research focuses on political economy, political behaviour and political parties in the UK and Europe. At the moment, I am mainly working on a book on the politics of welfare reforms in the UK since the 1980s, funded by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship. I am also currently working on the political economy of housing policy and on the changing age structure of European societies. Past projects have examined measuring long-term ideological change in Europe, attitudes to redistribution and the welfare state, and the politics of class, including the lack of working-class MPs in British politics.
Publications
- Books
- O’Grady, T. (2022) The Transformation of British Welfare Policy: Politics, Discourse and Public Opinion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Journal articles
- O’Grady, T. (2022) ‘ls Ideological Polarisation by Age Group Growing in Europe?’, European Journal of Political Research, online early view.
- Langsæther, P. E., Evans, G. and O’Grady, T. (2021) ‘Explaining the Relationship Between Class Position and Political Preferences: A Long-Term Panel Analysis of Intra-Generational Class Mobility’, British Journal of Political Science, 52(2), pp. 958–967.
- O’Grady, T. and Abou-Chadi, T. (2019) ‘Not so Responsive After All: European Parties do not Respond to Public Opinion Shifts across Multiple Issue Dimensions’, Research and Politics, 6(4).
- O’Grady, T. (2017) ‘How do Economic Circumstances Determine Preferences? Evidence From Long-Run Panel Data’, British Journal of Political Science, 49(4), pp. 1381–1406.
- Caughey, D., O’Grady, T. and Warshaw, C. (2019) ‘Policy Ideology in European Mass Publics: 1981-2016’, American Political Science Review, 113(3), pp. 674–693.
- O’Grady, T. (2018) ‘Careerists versus Coal-Miners: Welfare Reforms and the Substantive Representation of Social Groups in the British Labour Party’, Comparative Political Studies, 52(4), pp. 544–578.
- Slapin, J., Kirkland, J., Lazzaro, J., Leslie, P. and O’Grady, T. (2017) ‘Ideology, Grandstanding, and Strategic Party Disloyalty in the British Parliament’, American Political Science Review, 112(1), pp. 15–30.
Teaching
At UCL, I am based in political science but mainly teach on the cross-department QStep initiative, which offers cutting-edge instruction in quantitative methods and data science for undergraduates across the social sciences. I also teach a graduate module on political behaviour.