Hi!
My name is Theresa Gessler and I am a tenure-track assistant professor for Comparative Politics at European University Viadrina. Most of my current research focuses on democracy, digital politics, gender and immigration, often through the lens of party politics. I primarily study European countries, especially Central-Eastern Europe. Next to classical political science methods, I use (and teach) text-as-data, webscraping and various types of digital trace data in my research.
Previously, I finished my MA in Political Science with a specialization on Research Methods at Central European University in Budapest and finished my PhD on the politicization of immigration and democracy at the European University Institute in Florence in December 2019. Until July 2022, I was a postdoc in political science at the University of Zurich and the Digital Democracy Lab, where I am still a fellow. Currently, I am also a guest researcher at the Zentrum für Zivilgesellschaftsforschung at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB).
You can find information about me, my research, publications and my teaching profile on this webpage. If you are interested in my teaching, you can also have a look at my example course on text analysis or my German language no-math introduction to quantitative methods. While I am sometimes slow with updating my webpage, I try to regularly share things on Bluesky and my Google Scholar page is up-to-date with my publications.
Some more things to know about me: I am a co-organizer of the Summer School for Women in Political Methodology. I have been awarded the PolMeth Europe Emerging Scholar Award for Contributions to Political Methodology at the first European PolMeth Conference in 2021. Previously, one of my papers has won the Best Presentation Award at the European Symposium on Societal Challenges in Computational Social Science (full paper). Currently, I am also a co-speaker of the Section ‘Methods of Political Science’ of the German Political Science Association.
News
| Date | News |
|---|---|
| 01/2025 | New open-access publication in the European Journal of Political Research: A new regime divide? Democratic backsliding, attitudes towards democracy and affective polarization with Natasha Wunsch. |
| 12/2024 | New publication Advocacy campaigns and gender bias in media coverage of elections with Fabrizio Gilardi and Maël Kubli at Political Science Research and Methods (open access). |
| 11/2024 | Kick off for our new research project: The project (funded by the Fritz-Thyssen foundation) investigates the dynamics of autocratization and opposition to it in Eastern Europe and Latin America. The project focuses on the role of democratic experience and political opportunity structures for the resilience of democracy. |
| 09/2024 | New publication The Democracy I Like: Perceptions of Democracy and Opposition to Democratic Backsliding with Lea Kaftan at Government & Opposition. The paper is open-access. |
| 12/2023 | Our paper ‘Communicating democratic subversions to citizens’ with Lea Kaftan was published open-access in the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. |
| 10/2023 | I have been selected as a ZIA - Visible Women in Science Fellow. Looking forward to meet other women* in science over the next year. |
| 06/2023 | Our paper ‘Who tolerates democratic backsliding? A mosaic approach to voters’ responses to authoritarian leadership in Hungary’ with Natasha Wunsch was published open-access in Democratization. |
| 06/2023 | Our book ‘Contentious Episodes in the Age of Austerity. Studying the Dynamics of Government-Challenger Interactions’ (co-edited with Abel Bojar, Swen Hutter, and Hanspeter Kriesi) is now available as a Paperback from Cambridge University Press. |
| 03/2023 | Several new preprints online: Advocacy campaigns and gender bias in media coverage of elections (with Fabrizio Gilardi & Maël Kubli), A new regime divide? Partisan affect and attitudes towards democratic backsliding (with Natasha Wunsch), and The Cure Worse Than the Disease? How the Media’s Attention to Misinformation Decreases Trust (with multiple co-authors). |
| 08/2022 | Our paper ‘Democracy challenged: how parties politicize different democratic principles’ (with Sarah Engler, Tarik Abou-Chadi & Lucas Leemann) was published in the Journal of European Public Policy (Open Access). |
| 07/2022 | I’ve started as a tenure-track assistant professor (‘Juniorprofessur’) for Comparative Politics at European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). |
| 06/2022 | Our paper ‘How the refugee crisis and radical right parties shape party competition on immigration’ (with Sophia Hunger) got an issue & page numbers in Political Science Research and Methods (Open Access). |
| 11/2021 | Our book ‘Contentious Episodes in the Age of Austerity’ (with Abel Bojar, Swen Hutter, and Hanspeter Kriesi) is now published at Cambridge University Press. |
| 08/2021 | Our paper ‘How do populist radical right parties differentiate their appeal? Evidence from the media strategy of the Hungarian Jobbik party’ (with Endre Borbáth) was published in Government & Opposition (Open Access). |
| 06/2021 | Our paper ‘Building Research Infrastructures to Study Digital Technology and Politics’ (with multiple co-authors) was accepted at PS: Political Science & Politics. The preprint is available online. |
| 05/2021 | Our paper ‘Social Media and Political Agenda Setting’ (with Fabrizio Gilardi, Maël Kubli, and Stefan Müller) was published in Political Communication (Open Access). |
| 03/2021 | Our paper ‘Social Media and Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Switzerland’ (with Fabrizio Gilardi, Maël Kubli, and Stefan Müller) was accepted at the Swiss Political Science Review. |
| 01/2021 | Our paper ‘No country for Asylum Seekers? How short-term exposure to refugees influences attitudes and voting behavior in Hungary’ (with Gergö Tóth and Johannes Wachs) was published in Political Behavior (Open Access). |