Dr. Mathilde van Ditmars
SNF Postdoctoral Researcher (Prof. Dr. Alexander H. Trechsel)
T +41 41 229 55 88 • Room 3.B14 • Mathilde.VanDitmars@unilu.ch
CV
Dr. Mathilde M. van Ditmars is postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Political Science, in the SNF-funded project DIGIPOL (2021-2025) led by Prof. Dr. A.H. Trechsel. Her research lies at the intersection of political behaviour, political sociology, and family sociology. She is specialized in political socialization research, with an application of quantitative methods using panel data. Before joining the University of Lucerne as senior researcher and lecturer in 2019, 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 on political socialization processes. She has been a visiting researcher in Berlin (DIW), Cologne (Gesis EUROLAB), and Lausanne (FORS). Earlier 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
- Gender and politics
- European and Dutch politics
Publications
- Van Ditmars, M. M. (2022). Political socialization, political gender gaps and the intergenerational transmission of left-right ideology. European Journal of Political Research. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12517
- 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
- Van Ditmars, M. M., Maggini, N., & Van Spanje, J. H. P. (2021). The 2017 Dutch general election: how small parties campaigned more strategically. In De Sio, L. & Lachat, R. (Eds.), Conflict Mobilisation or Problem-Solving?: Issue Competition in Western Europe (pp. 35–56). Oxon and New York: Routledge.
- Lorenzi, J., & Van Ditmars, M. M. (2019). Austria, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland: Old and New Winning Formulas of the Populist Radical Right. In Hutter, Swen & Kriesi, Hanspeter (Eds.), European party politics in times of crisis. (pp. 261–280). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108652780
- Van Ditmars, M. M. (22 December 2021). Krijg je ideologie met de paplepel ingegoten? [Do you get your ideology at home?]. Retrieved from https://stukroodvlees.nl/krijg-je-ideologie-met-de-paplepel-ingegoten/
- Van Ditmars, M. M. (21 April 2021). Maken dochters hun ouders progressiever? [Do daughters make their parents more progressive?]. Retrieved from https://stukroodvlees.nl/maken-dochters-hun-ouders-progressiever/
Achievements
- Political gender gaps and life course transitions in Western Europe. (Panel) contribution, European Political Science Association (EPSA) 2021 Annual General Conference, European Political Science Association (EPSA), Held online, 2021
- Parental separation and (young) adults’ political ideology. (Panel) contribution, Annual Meeting of the Swiss Political Science Association (SVPW), University of Bern, Bern (held online), 2021
- Political socialization in European multiparty systems: the intergenerational transmission of mothers’ and fathers’ left-right ideology. (Panel) contribution, Annual Meeting of the Swiss Political Science Association (SVPW), Swiss Political Science Association (SVPW), Luzern, 2020
- The gender gap in political interest: interplay of genes and gendered socialization? (Panel) contribution, Annual Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP), Lisbon, 2019
- Who continues to vote for the left? The effect of intra- and intergenerational social mobility on support for social-democratic parties in the UK and Switzerland. (Panel) contribution, European Political Science Association Annual General Conference, European Political Science Association (EPSA), Belfast, 2019