Contact Information
Email
Website
936-7983
354 Commons Center
Office Hours
On leave - will not be holding office hours
Education
Ph.D., Political Science, University of California, Davis
M.A., Political Science, Texas A&M University
Subfields
Comparative Politics
Political Methodology
Research Networks
Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP)
Specializations
Comparative Political Parties and Elections; Representation; European Politics
Curriculum Vitae
Zeynep Somer-Topcu
Assistant Professor
Joint appointment at the Max Kade Center for European and German Studies
Somer-Topcu is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, with a joint appointment at the Max Kade Center of European and German Studies. Her research and teaching interests include party politics, election results, representation, and voter perceptions. Her main focus is on Western Europe, though her research often extends to other advanced industrial democracies. Her work on explaining party policy shifts and the consequences of these policies has appeared in American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies and Journal of Politics. She is currently working on a series of projects examining how the availability and the unity of the party message affect voters perceptions of party policies and how different party strategies help or hurt parties’ election performance. Somer-Topcu teaches undergraduate courses on West European politics, the European Union and comparative political parties. Her graduate level seminar offerings include Comparative Political Parties, Comparative Representation and Accountability, and Statistics for Political Science I.
Representative publications
- “Is Anybody Listening? Evidence that Voters do not Respond to European Parties’ Policy Programmes” (with James Adams and Lawrence Ezrow) American Journal of Political Science 55(2): 370-382 (2011).
- “European Parliamentary Elections and National Party Policy Change” (with Michelle Zar) Accepted for publication in Comparative Political Studies.
- “Does Collective Responsibility for Performance Alter Party Strategies? Policy-Seeking Parties in Proportional Systems” (with James Adams, Lawrence Ezrow, and Samuel Merrill III) British Journal of Political Science 43(1): 1-23 (2013).
- “Government versus Opposition at the Polls: How Governing Status Changes the Impact of Policy Positions” (with Kathleen Bawn) American Journal of Political Science 56(2): 433-446 (2012).
- “Timely Decisions: The Effects of Past National Elections on Party Policy” Journal of Politics 71(1): 238-248 (2009).
- “Do Parties Adjust Their Policies in Response to Rival Parties’ Policy Shifts? Spatial Theory and the Dynamics of Party Competition in Twenty-Five Postwar Democracies” (with James Adams) British Journal of Political Science 39: 825-846 (2009).
- View Curriculum Vitae