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Meet the team

John Garry
John Garry

Professor John Garry (Principal Investigator)

John Garry is Professor of Political Behaviour at Queen’s University Belfast. He is principal investigator of the Northern Ireland Assembly Election Study 2016. John has published in leading international journals on political attitudes and behaviour (in Northern Ireland and comparatively) and manifesto analysis. His latest book, Consociation and Voting: Party Competition and Electoral Behaviour in Northern Ireland, will be published by University of Pennsylvania Press in 2016.

John Coakley
John Coakley

Professor John Coakley

John Coakley is Emeritus Professor of Politics at University College Dublin and visiting Professor at Queen’s University Belfast. John is a founding director of the Institute for British-Irish Studies and is a leading expert on ethnic conflict, Irish and Northern Irish politics and lower preference voting in Northern Ireland’s STV electoral system. His latest book, Breaking Patterns of Conflict: Britain, Ireland and the Northern Ireland Conflict, was published by Routledge in 2014 (co-edited with Jennifer Todd).

Brendan O'Leary
Brendan O'Leary

Professor Brendan O’Leary

Brendan O’Leary is Lauder Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania and visiting Professor at Queen’s University Belfast. He is one of the world’s leading experts on consociational democratic design and has published prolifically on the Northern Ireland case. Brendan is the inaugural winner of the Juan Linz prize of the International Political Science Association for contributions to the study of multinational societies, federalism and power-sharing. 

Geoffrey Evans
Geoffrey Evans

Professor Geoffrey Evans

Geoffrey Evans is Professor of the Sociology of Politics at Nuffield College, Oxford. He is a specialist in public opinion, voting behaviour and political sociology (in Britain and comparatively) and has published seminal papers on the social and ideological bases of voting in Northern Ireland. Geoff is a co-director of the British Election Study 2015 and the Scottish Referendum Study (2014-2016). His latest co-authored book, The New Class War: The political and social marginalization of the British working class, will be published by Oxford University Press in 2016.

Sara B. Hobolt
Sara B. Hobolt

Professor Sara B. Hobolt

Sara B. Hobolt is Professor and Sutherland Chair in European Institutions at the London School of Economics. She has published extensively in the area of citizens’ attribution of responsibility in different institutional contexts and accountability-based models of voting behaviour. Her most recent book publications include Democratic Politics in a European Union under Stress (Oxford University, 2014, co-edited with Olaf Cramme) and Blaming Europe? Responsibility without Accountability in the European Union (Oxford University, 2014, co-authored with James Tilley). 

James Tilley
James Tilley

Professor James Tilley

James Tilley is Professor of Politics at Jesus College Oxford. He works primarily in the fields of public opinion and electoral behaviour (in Britain and comparatively) and has published in prestigious journals on electoral behaviour in Northern Ireland. His latest co-authored book, The New Class War: The political and social marginalization of the British working class, will be published by Oxford University Press in 2016.

Clifford Stevenson
Clifford Stevenson

Dr Clifford Stevenson

Clifford Stevenson is Reader in Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University and former Director of the Centre for Research on Political Psychology at Queen’s University Belfast. He is an expert on national and social identity in Northern Ireland and elsewhere and has published in a range of leading psychology journals. Clifford has also examined the public display of political symbolism in Northern Ireland.

Neil Matthews
Neil Matthews

Dr Neil Matthews

Neil Matthews is Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast. He received his PhD from Queen’s University Belfast in 2014. A former co-editor of Irish Political Studies data yearbook, Neil’s research interests centre on party competition, intra-party democracy and institutional design in post-conflict societies. Neil has published on Northern Ireland politics in Parliamentary Affairs and is a frequent contributor to the media.