I am a doctoral student at Merton College. I am researching the kind of people (in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, with a particular focus on education, former occupation, and class) who act as politicians in modern Britain, testing whether they are the kind of people whom Britons want to act as their representatives (at the experimental and electoral levels), and exploring what British politicians publicise - and don't publicise - about themselves with regard to the sociodemographic characteristics listed above.

I am a comparative political scientist interested in the origins of exclusionary politics in modern nation-states. My current mixed-methods comparative research explores modern migration control, illiberalism, and the threat of democratic backsliding in liberal democracies. I completed my DPhil in Politics at the DPIR in 2024 and am now developing case studies and other resources for immersive political science and public policy teaching at the Blavatnik School of Government's Case Centre on Public Leadership, University of Oxford. I am an Associate Member of Nuffield College.

I am a DPhil (PhD) student in Politics at the DPIR and a current predoctoral visiting fellow at the Center for US-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

Cecilia started her DPhil in International Relations at Oxford in 2019. Her research interest lies in the areas of global governance, humanitarian action and global health. For her DPhil project, Cecilia investigates the causes of competition and cooperation failures among UN agencies operating in humanitarian emergencies.

Introduction

I am a Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of Amsterdam, Department of Political Science. I am also a Doctoral Candidate (DPhil) at the Department of Politics and International Relations​, University of Oxford, fully funded by a DPIR Scholarship. I read Law at the Birkbeck School of Law, University of London.

My research interests lie in understanding how individuals think about economic inequality and its sources. I use experimental methods to uncover individuals’ attitudes towards policies that aim at reducing economic inequality such as including immigrants into the welfare state, increasing taxes on the super-rich or decreasing the salary gap between highly and lowly paid occupations. Apart from looking at public support for certain policies, I also explore how individuals justify market inequality in the first place.