Alex Mierke-Zatwarnicki

Welcome! I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at Vanderbilt University's Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. I previously held postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford University and the European University Institute, and received my Ph.D. in Government from Harvard in Fall 2023.

My research focuses on party organization and group mobilization in Western Europe, studied in macro-historical perspective. I explore how political parties mobilize new group identities into politics and the conditions that shape their strategies. My book manuscript, Solidarity Lost, examines how challenger parties use identity politics to gain electoral footing, comparing cases from socialist to far-right parties across over a century of European politics. You can read more about my work here.

I have held visiting positions at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, and the Center for the Study of Democratic Citizenship in Montreal. I received my B.A. from the University of British Columbia and M.A. from the University of Toronto, both in political science.