Beginning in May 2023, Jacob Gunderson will be a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Gothenburg as part of the INTRAPARTY Project. He received his Ph.D. in May 2023. Previously, he was also a Guest Researcher with the Zentrum für Zivilgesellschaftsforschung at the Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung Berlin from January to June 2022.
Personal WebpageTeaching
In addition to his research, Jacob has also taught courses on American, comparative, and European politics. For more information on these courses and Jacob’s research visit his website.
Research Interests
- Party competition in developed democracies party systems
- Inequality
- Political behavior
Publications
His research has been published in leading international journals including the British Journal of Political Science, Political Behavior, and Policy and Society as well as forthcoming articles in Party Politics and the European Journal of Political Research. In his dissertation, Jacob argues that one cause of contemporary political change, broadly defined, in European politics is the weakening of party brands—the image in voters’ minds of who parties are and what they stand for. These party brands are crucial because they form the foundation of how citizens identify, distinguish, and evaluate the political parties competing for their votes. He deploys large-N quantitative, experimental, and interview methods to investigate various ways that party brands have changed over time and influence citizens’ political behavior. This research develops and nuances existing research on the processes that have led to brand convergence across European political systems.