Denise Traber

I am an Assistant Professor of Political Sociology at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Basel, Switzerland.

Previously, I was a senior research fellow (SNSF Ambizione) at the University of Lucerne, a senior researcher (Oberassistentin) at the Department of Political Science, University of Zurich, and a visiting researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

My research focuses on party competition and political behavior in the context of societal and economic changes. In my current research projects, I study the causes and consequences of political polarization, and (unequal) representation in Europe.

Further, I have a strong interest in quantitative and computational methods, in particular quantitative text analysis, that I use to analyze political speeches, party manifestos, and parliamentary debates.

I am one of the organizers of the Summer School for Women in Political Methodology (with Prof. Anita Gohdes, Malu Gatto and Theresa Gessler). The 2020 methods school/Alumni workshop took place online in November 2020 (funded by UZH).

Research Research projects and manuscripts/working papers

Work in progress

• The surge in female representation in the 2019 elections: between demand and supply side explanations (with Nathalie Giger, Fabrizio Gilardi and Sarah Bütikofer). Under review.

• Public Opinion Polarization between Partisans in Multi-Party Systems (with Tanja Burri and Lukas F. Stoetzer). Prepared for the SPSA Annual Meeting & Dreiländertagung 3-4 February, 2020 Luzern.

• Under review.

• Voter Signalling or Coalition Adjustment? Party Competition and Environmental Speeches in the German Bundestag (with Clint Claessen and Martijn Schoonvelde). Prepared for the Annual Conference of the European Political Science Association, 24-25 June 2021.

• The Effects of Political Arguments on Voting Decisions (with Lukas F. Stoetzer). Presented at the Annual Conference of the European Political Science Association, 20-22 June 2019, Belfast.

• Polarization or convergence? How the economy shapes party policy positions. Presented at the staff seminaire, Department of Political Science, University of Geneva, 21.2.2021.

• The Refugee Crisis and Polarization of Political Attitudes in Germany. Presented at the SPSA Annual Meeting & Dreiländertagung 14-16 February, 2019, Zurich, and the Annual MPSA Conference, April 4-7, 2019, Chicago.

• “Clutter”: How much information do party manifestos contain? (with Daniel Bischof and Hauke Licht). Presented at the Manifesto Project Corpus Conference, 1-2 February 2018, Berlin.

• Voting against the party? Elite Influence on Public Opinion in Direct Democracy (with Céline Colombo, Silja Häusermann, Thomas Kurer and Michael Pinggera). Presented at the MPSA Annual Conference, 5-8 April 2018, Chicago, and at the annual conference of the European Political Science Association, 21-23 June 2018, Vienna.

Ongoing and recently completed research projects

• 1) A Quantitative Textual Approach of the European Consensus Method of Interpretation in the European Court of Human Rights, SNIS Project, with Jon Slapin (Coordinator), Nicole Baerg, Hauke Licht, Vassilis P Tzevelekos, Panos Kapotas, Kushtrim Istrefi and Maria Fanou. Co-Coordinator, 2020-2022.
• 2) The divided people: polarization of political attitudes in Europe. SNSF Ambizione Project, No PZ00P1_174067, 2018 — 2021.
• 3) Hard choices. Preferences, trade-offs and reform opportunities in multidimensional welfare politics, SNSF-Project, with Silja Häusermann (PI), Thomas Kurer and Michael Pinggera, Collaborator, Operative Leader 1st wave of survey, 2015 — 2018.
• 4) Crisis of democracy? Party politics and representation in times of austerity, SNSF-Project, with Silja Häusermann, Postdoc, 2014 — 2017.