Prof. Selen A. Ercan
Selen Ayirtman Ercan is a Professor of Political Science and Director at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. Her research interests include theory and practice of deliberative democracy, identity politics and multiculturalism, and alternative forms of political participation. Selen's work has been published in International Political Science Review, Political Studies, Policy and Politics, and Social Movement Studies, amongst others. Her recent publications include Mending Democracy: Democratic Repair in Disconnected Times (with Hendriks and Boswell; OUP, 2020) and Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy (with Asenbaum, Curato and Mendonça; OUP, 2022).
Prof. Nicole Curato
Nicole Curato is Professor of Political Sociology at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy & Global Governance at the University of Canberra. Her work examines how democratic innovations can take root in the aftermath of tragedies, including disasters, armed conflict, and authoritarian violence. She is the author of the prize-winning book Democracy in a Time of Misery: From Spectacular Tragedy to Deliberative Action (2019, Oxford University Press) and co-editor of the Journal of Deliberative Democracy and Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy (2022, Oxford University Press).
Prof. John Parkinson
John Parkinson is Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at Maastricht University, and Adjunct Professor of Politics, University of Canberra. He works on the relationships between formal policy making and a wide variety of practices in the public sphere, crossing boundaries between normative political theory, public policy, political sociology, and cultural studies. His books include Deliberating in the Real World (Oxford, 2006), Deliberative Systems with Jane Mansbridge (Cambridge, 2012), Democracy and Public Space (Oxford, 2012), and Mapping and Measuring Deliberation with André Bächtiger (Oxford, 2019). His next book will be Deliberative Systems in Action with Sebastian Delaile and Núria Franco-Guillén, also with Oxford University Press.
Prof. Parkinson was from 27.01 to 31.01.2020 visiting fellow at the Research Unit Democratic Innovations.
Prof. Dr. Kimmo Grönlund
Professor of political science, Åbo Akademi
Director, Social Science Research Institute (Samforsk)
Deputy Director of the Centre of Excellence, Democracy – A Citizen Perspective (D:CE)
Kimmo Grönlund was visiting fellow from October to December 2014 at the Research Unit Democratic Innovations.
Prof. Quinton Mayne, Ph.D.
Harvard Kennedy School, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
Quinton Mayne was visiting fellow at the Research Unit Democratic Innovations June-Juli 2013, May-June 2014 as well as May-June 2017.
Prof. Dr. Thamy Pogrebinschi
State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ),
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB)
Grosser Visiting-Professorship fall semester 2013/2014
(Financing: Polytechnic Society Frankfurt)
Thamy Pogrebinschi is a proven expert on the democracies of Latin America, which are currently developing innovative ways of including their citizens in the political decision-making process. In addition to the integration of direct-democratic procedures into their constitutions – including referenda and citizens’ initiatives- Latin American democracies are trying out a variety of new, creative methods of deliberative forms of citizen participation. Pogrebinschi's theoretical approach of “Pragmatic Democracy” is being probed and developed based on her own studies. Among other positions, she is coordinator of the “Laboratory Studies on Democracy” in Brasil.“
Prof. Dr. Yves Sintomer
Professeur de sociologie, dpt. de science politique, Université de Paris VIII
Membre de l’UMR Cultures et Sociétés Urbaines (CSU, CNRS/Université Paris 8)
Membre associé au Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin, CNRS
Grosser-Visiting Professorship WS 2014/15
Project propopsal with Prof. Geißel
Yves Sintomer was visiting fellow at the Research Unit Democratic Innovations during fall semester 2014/15.
Website Yves Sintomer
Tamara Ehs
Tamara Ehs studied political science, communication and law at the University of Vienna, Sciences Po Lille and European Academy of Legal Theory Brussels and today works as a political scientist and democracy consultant across borders in Central Europe. She co-conceived the European Capital of Democracy (ECoD) and is a scientific advisor to the State Councillor of the Baden-Württemberg government on issues of citizen participation as well as a member of the "Commission for Dialogue Processes of the Administration with Civil Society" at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Protection and Innovation. Tamara has led research projects at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and at the Universities of Vienna and Salzburg, and has been a guest lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Comenius University Bratislava, Free University Berlin, as well as a visiting researcher at Harvard Law School and the New York Public Library. Most recently, she evaluated the Austrian Climate Council on behalf of the European Climate Foundation. She is currently engaged in various democracy consulting assignments, including the preparation of the European Parliamentary elections in 2024. Her publications deal with democracy reforms, social issues of democracy and constitution, and the challenges of European integration. Tamara Ehs has received numerous awards, including the Ludo Hartmann Prize of the Austrian Adult Education Association, the Science Prize of the Austrian Parliament, and the Kurt Rothschild Prize.
Dr. Janette Huttunen
Janette Huttunen is a postdoctoral researcher in political science at Åbo Akademi University. Janette's current work focuses on issues from participatory equality to polarization, deliberative democracy to climate activism. She is a visiting fellow at the Research Unit Democratic Innovations from November 2022 to January 2023.
Hans Asenbaum
Hans Asenbaum is a final year PhD researcher and visiting lecturer at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster in London and an associate of the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. He is co-convener of the Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association. Hans' work addresses questions of inequality and inclusion in new participatory spaces created by social movements and state actors and has been published in The American Political Science Review and New Media & Society.
Sandro Kapeller
Center for Innovation Systems & Policy, Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT)
Sandro Kapeller is a PhD student in political science at the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) as part of a cooperation between the AIT and the University of Vienna. He conducts qualitative research on democratic innovations at the local and federal-state (Länder) level, with special emphasis on infrastructure policy and linkages between procedures, participants, politicians, the media and the public.
Spencer McKay
Spancer McKay is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of British Columbia (UBC) where he specializes in political theory and comparative politics. Broadly speaking, he studies ‘democratic innovations’ and the role of institutional design in translating democratic ideals into practice.
Vincent Jacquet
PhD candidate (FRESH F.R.S.-FNRS), Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Vincent Jacquet is a PhD candidate (FRESH F.R.S.-FNRS) in political science at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. He graduated from the Université de Liège. His research interests are participatory and deliberative democracy, political participation, local politics and democratic theory. He is currently working on a doctoral thesis on the citizens’ reluctance to take part in deliberative mini-publics and criminal juries.
Patricia Anna Buser
Ph.D. Candidate, University Zürich and ZDA (Center for Democracy Aarau)
Research Fellow, Nationalfondsprojekt „School Governance und Laienpartizipation in der Schweiz“
Patricia Anna Buser was visiting fellow at the Research Unit Democratic Innovations from Mai to August 2015.
Yanilda Maria Gonzalez, Ph.D.
Post-Doctoral Democracy Fellow, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School.
Yanilda Maria Gonzales was visiting fellow at the Research Unit from June to August 2015.
Website Yanilda Maria Gonzalez
Nivek Thompson
Doctoral Candidate, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney.
Nivek Thompson was visiting fellow at the Research Unit Democratic Innovations during November 2015.
Website Nivek Thompson
