Research

From November 2025, I have been Professor of European Politics, focusing on Comparative European Politics and the European Union. My recent work includes funded research on populism, resulting in publication of Responding to Populist Parties in Europe: The 'Other People' versus the 'Populist People (Oxford University Press, 2023), an edited book on Democratic Defence as Normal Politics: Everyday Opposition to Populist Parties in Europe (Palgrave, 2024), and a dataset on Initiatives Opposing Populist Parties (Harvard dataverse, 2024). 

I have a BA (Hons) from Queensland University, an MA from Lancaster University, and a PhD from University of Bristol and has previously worked at the University of Dundee and the University of Aberystwyth in the United Kingdom.

Among other things, previous research has examined conditions under which liberal democratic states undertake the grave decision to ban political parties and Europeanization of social movement mobilisation in the context of the European sovereign debt crisis. These have been published in two monographs, Democratic Dilemmas: Why Democracies Ban Political Parties (Routledge, 2018) and the edited book European Social Movements and the Transnationalization of Public Spheres (Routledge, 2018).

Current EU funded projects are:

ValEUs: Research and Education Network on Contestations to EU Foreign Policy (Erasmus-JMO-Network) 2024-2026

Trans4demo: Horizon Europe: Contentious Politics and Democratic Renewal in Sustainability Transitions. 2025-2027