Dr Scott Williamson to join the Department
The Department is delighted to announce that Dr Scott Williamson will join the team in April 2024 as Associate Professor of Comparative Political Economy and Tutorial Fellow at Magdalen College.
Dr Williamson is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at Bocconi University and was previously a postdoctoral research fellow in the Social Science Division at New York University Abu Dhabi. He holds a PhD in Political Science from Stanford University.
His research explores topics including the popular politics of dictatorship, support for democracy, and attitudes toward migration and foreign aid, particularly in the Middle East. His work has featured in academic journals including the American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, the British Journal of Political Science, Political Analysis, and International Studies Quarterly.
He brings with him a recently awarded €1.5m ERC Starting Grant. The project – Democratic Values and Authoritarian Legitimacy – will explore how people understand and support democracy and how autocratic rulers try to use these values to their advantage to strengthen their grip on power.
I’m very excited to be joining DPIR and Magdalen College, and I’m looking forward to working with so many inspiring students and colleagues.
Oxford will be an excellent community in which to develop my research on popular support for democracy and autocracy.”
