I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Department Data Services for the Social Sciences at GESIS.  I work on the collection and provision of digital behavioral data. My research interest substantively revolves around legislative & party politics and political representation. This also includes a strong interest in methodological approaches such as quantitative text analysis or survey experiments, as well as the provision and harmonization of large data sets.

My dissertation focused on party behaviour in parliaments: In a paper published in European Politcal Science Review, I look at the effect of the electoral cycle on parliamentary speech behaviour in six established democracies. I show that the incentives and possibilities to shape legislation and the need to distinguish oneself from competitors shape the sentiment of speeches. In another paper published in Legislative Studies Quarterly, I use different text-as-data approaches to analyze the behaviour of established parties when populist radical right parties enter and stay in parliament. How does the constrained context influence the interaction and how does it differ to the electoral arena? The final paper (published in Electoral Studies) brings the voter back into the picture. Using a survey experiment, I ask to what extent the perception of party communication is influenced by the relationship of a voter towards a party and the institional context in which the statement was made.

Furthermore, I have worked as a doctoral researcher for OPTED, an infrastructure project for the provision and analysis of political text data. Our work package focused on designing infrastructures that foster the collection, harmonization, publication, and analysis of textual data related to parliamentary speeches as well as legislation, bills, amendments and laws.