Contact Details

Telephone

work +44 (0)1224 272179

Email

kathrin.thomas@abdn.ac.uk

Address

The University of Aberdeen University of Aberdeen, School of Social Sciences, Department of Politics and International Relations, Edward Wright Building (F18), AB24 3FX, Aberdeen

Biography

I have joined the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Aberdeen in September 2019 as Lecturer in Politics. Previously, I was Senior Research Specialist in the Department of Politics at Princeton University, working on the Arab Barometer. I also worked as Reserach Associate in Survey Methodology in the Department of Sociology at City, University of London (I am a good friend of the European Social Survey); Research Associate on the Austrian National Election Study hosted by the Department of Methods in the Social Sciences at the University of Vienna; as well as Post-doctoral Teaching Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Aberdeen.

I obtained my PhD in Politics from the University of Exeter within the Marie Curie ITN on Electoral Democracy (ELECDEM) in 2013. I feel very grateful that I could be part of this! As Early Stage Marie Curie Researcher, I was able to spend time as Visiting Scholar in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan working on the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems as well as in the Politics Department at the European University Institute.

I am a Co-chair of the Steering Committee of the ECPR Standing Group on Political Methodology since 2015 and have also been involved in the ECPR Winter School in Methods and Techniques for several years now. I have joined the European Survey Reserach Association as a Board Member in 2019.

The common theme here is surveys. Yes, I happen to like them a lot and I am eager to learn more about how to improve survey data collection, survey samples, survey questions and other survey related issues. Now wait a minute, I also have substantive interests in politics and international relations related to (comparative) public opinion research, electoral politics and participation, and social and political psychology. I have also build expertise in the politics of the Middle East and North Africa over the past few years.