The Volkswagen Foundation has awarded a 1.5 million euro grant to Heike Kluever (Humboldt University Berlin), Sara Hobolt (LSE), Theresa Kuhn (UvA), Toni Rodon (Pompeu Fabra University) and Michal Krawczyk (University of Warsaw) to study how the COVID-19 crisis affects eurosceptic attitudes, solidarity with fellow Europeans and the electoral performance of eurosceptic parties. The project will combine survey, observational and geocoded data with natural, survey and field experiments as well as innovative natural language processing technologies. The portion awarded to UvA (326.800 EUR) will include funding for a PhD student and a multi-country survey experiment. more information

Together with Sergi Pardos-Prado, I have written an article on corruption and public support for decentralization, which now has been published open-access in European Journal of Political Research, a leading peer-reviewed journal in political science. We propose a new theoretical explanation of support for decentralization by emphasising the important role of quality of governance. In a survey experiment in Spain, we show that information on national‐level corruption increases preferences for decentralization and secession. Information on regional‐level corruption pushes citizens of highly corrupt regions to prefer national retrenchment and unitary states. A cross-national analysis of survey data from the European Values Survey shows that our findings are generalizable beyond Spain.

I have been awarded a fellowship to spend 5 months at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) in order to work on my book project on the national boundaries of solidarity in the European Union. NIAS is part of the Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences and aims to create a physical and intellectual space for advanced research in the social sciences and humanities. The fellowship is sponsored by Instituut GAK which supports research projects dealing with social and labour market security.

Together with Francesco Nicoli, I have edited a Special Issue on Collective identities and Integration of Core State Powers in the Journal of Common Market Studies, one of the leading EU-studies journals.

The special issue provides an interdisciplinary analysis of the link between collective identities and supranational integration of powers in policy areas that are essential for the functioning of the modern state.

It includes contributions by Tanja Boerzel, Bjorn Bremer, Brian Burgoon, Catherine de Vries, Michael O. Eze,  Sacha Garben, Philip Genschel, Stephanie Hofmann, Markus Jachtenfuchs, Felix Karstens, Theresa Kuhn, Matthias Matthijs, Kate McNamara, Frederic Merand, Silvia Merler, Paul Musgrave, Francesco Nicoli, Thomas Risse, Katja Van der Wal and Catherine de Vries

The special issue can be accessed here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14685965/2020/58/1

Sander Kunst wrote an LSE Brexit blog post on our article “Does education decrease Euroscepticism? A regression discontinuity design using compulsory schooling reforms in four European countries“, published with Herman van de Werfhorst in European Union Politics.

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I have been appointed Co-Director of the ACES Research Priority Area within the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences of the University of Amsterdam.  I will replace departing Sociology Professor Giselinde Kuipers on the Governing Board of the FMG RPA. Within the Faculty, I will have special responsibility for promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and joint activities between Political Science, Sociology, Communication Science, and Psychology.