Dr. Mathilde van Ditmars
Senior Researcher and Lecturer (Prof. Alexander Trechsel)
T +41 41 229 55 88 • Room 3.B14 • Mathilde.VanDitmars @ unilu.ch
CV
Dr. Mathilde M. van Ditmars is Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the Department of Political Science. Her research lies at the intersection of political behaviour, family sociology, and political psychology. She is specialized in political socialization research, with an application of quantitative methods using panel data. Before joining the University of Lucerne, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University College. Van Ditmars obtained her PhD in 2017 from the European University Institute in Florence, with a dissertation on the effects of different family dynamics (sibling gender composition; parental separation; social mobility) on political socialization processes. She has been a visiting researcher in Berlin (DIW), Cologne (Gesis EUROLAB), and Lausanne (FORS). Previously, she obtained her MSc (res.) in Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam and was a lecturer in the Political Science Department of the same university.
Research
Major fields of research:
- Comparative political behaviour
- Political sociology
- Political psychology
- Political representation
- European and Dutch politics
Publications
- van Ditmars, M. M. (2020). Opposing Forces? Intergenerational Social Mobility and the Transmission of Political Ideology. Swiss Journal of Sociology, 46 (3), 369–395. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2478/sjs-2020-0019
- Van Ditmars, M. M., Maggini, N., & Van Spanje, J. (2020). Small winners and big losers: strategic party behaviour in the 2017 Dutch general election. West European Politics, 43 (3), 543–564. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2019.1655959
- Van Ditmars, M. M., & De Lange, S. L. (2019). Differential representation? The gaps between mainstream and niche party representatives and their voters in The Netherlands. Acta Politica, 54 (2), 295–314. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41269-018-0087-z