William T. Daniel, PhD

Welcome to my professional page. 

I am Associate Professor of Comparative Politics in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham (UK). I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and teach modules in comparative politics and research methods. Alongside my academic work, I serve as Director of Student Recruitment for Social Sciences, coordinating recruitment and marketing activities across business, economics, geography, law, politics, social work, and sociology.

Before joining Nottingham, I was Assistant Professor of Political Science at Francis Marion University in South Carolina (USA). I received my PhD in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 2013, where I was affiliated with the European Union Center of Excellence and held visiting doctoral studentships at Sciences Po Paris, Université Libre de Bruxelles, and KU Leuven. I also hold an MA in Political Science and graduate certificates in European Union Studies and Western European Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, a BA in French and Political Science from Wake Forest University, and have studied at the German School at Middlebury College.

What I like to research.

My research lies in comparative politics, with particular interests in legislative politics, political parties, political careers, and political representation in Europe. Much of my work examines how identities—especially gender and sexuality—shape political recruitment, behaviour, and representation. I am also actively involved in international research networks focused on gender and politics, the European Union, legislative studies, digital campaigning, and political careers, with particular expertise in the European Parliament and French politics.

In 2025, I held a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship for Queering the Commons: Overcoming Polarisation with Identity-Based Connections. My recent book, Gender Quotas as Game Changers for the Recruitment, Selection, and Performance of Elected Politicians(with Andrea Aldrich), was published by Oxford University Press in 2025, following my first monograph, Career Behaviour and the European Parliament: All Roads Lead through Brussels? (Oxford University Press, 2015). My work has appeared in leading journals in political science and European studies, and employs a range of quantitative and qualitative methods, including original dataset construction, elite interviewing, and archival research conducted across several European legislatures.

My books on Careers in the European Parliament.

My books examine how institutional rules shape political careers and representation in the European Parliament. In Career Behaviour and the European Parliament: All Roads Lead through Brussels? (Oxford University Press, 2015), I explore how the Parliament's development as a professional legislature has influenced the career strategies and advancement opportunities of its members. More recently, in Gender Quotas as Game Changers for the Recruitment, Selection, and Performance of Elected Politicians (with Andrea S. Aldrich; Oxford University Press, 2025), I examine how gender quota implementation across Europe has disrupted traditional patterns of political recruitment and career progression, reshaping opportunities for women and men at subnational, national, and European levels of politics. Both projects draw on original datasets tracing the backgrounds and careers of European politicians over several decades, alongside extensive interview-based research with political actors and experts across Europe.

Related research that I have published since my book.

Related research on political careers, individual backgrounds, legislative behaviour, and election campaigning has appeared in JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, European Union Politics, Party Politics, Journal of European Integration, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Legislative Studies, Research & Politics, Politics & Gender, The Journal of Politics, and West European Politics. Current projects continue to address political experience, candidate selection, demographic representation, and the influence of individual backgrounds on political behaviour and policymaking within European institutions. For additional information on these projects, please consult my Publications & Data page.

A bit more about me.

I am originally from Charlotte, NC, and also hold an MA in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as a BA magna cum laude with Honors in Political Science and French from Wake Forest University. I hold graduate studies certificates in European Union studies and Western Europe studies from the European Union Center of Excellence at the University of Pittsburgh and studied German language and culture as a FLAS scholar at the Middlebury College German School in Vermont. I speak both French and German and have also studied Dutch and Polish. 

When not crunching numbers and researching, I am probably teaching, traveling, or at the gym. 

For complete information on my educational background and ongoing projects, please refer to my CV, Publications & Data, and Teaching pages.