Biography

Alex Mierke-Zatwarnicki is a political scientist interested in party competition and group representation in advanced democracies.

Her research focuses on how new parties articulate group conflict as they construct a party coalition and build a foothold in electoral politics. In her doctoral work at the Department of Government at Harvard University, Alex focused on the different ways in which political outsiders can frame the group stakes of politics and what influences their choice of (and success with) a representational strategy. While at Harvard, Alex worked as a teaching fellow on a variety of undergraduate courses related to the electoral politics of advanced democracies, including courses on Europe, the United States, and Japan. She also supervised two undergraduate theses on related topics.

As a Max Weber Fellow, Alex is bringing her research into the contemporary period with a focus on green and radical right parties, exploring how these newcomers have constructed and drawn upon group boundaries in recent decades. Simultaneously, she is working with historical British text data collected during her PhD to better understand the interactive aspects of communicating group representation

Research projects, clusters and working groups

• Representational resonance: tracing the spread of group appeals in British election addresses (1892-1931)
• Transnational Democracy in the 21st century

Mentor

• Daniele Caramani