Bio
Susan is the director of the Exeter Q-Step Centre working, along with a £1.44million investment from Nuffield, ESRC and Hefce and four new lecturers, toward advancing quantitative methods in the social sciences. She is a member of the Centre for Elections, Media and Participation.
Research interests
In general, Susan's research focuses on inequalities in political participation, bringing together individual and institutional explanations for inequalities into multi-level analyses using large-scale cross-national surveys that. These inequalities in political engagement and participation include differences between men and women, minorities and non-minorities as well as how events over the lifecycle can contribute to inequalities.
One question that motivates this research, and has significant policy implications, is which electoral rules, political institutions or policies are best at reducing political inequalities. In particular, a number of findings in her research suggest that electoral reforms meant to make participation more meaningful are better at reducing inequalities in diverse societies while reforms aimed at making participation less costly exacerbate these inequalities.
Another motivating question is how the news media contribute to or ameliorate inequalities in turnout and political engagement. This latter question has motivated her most recent research. Her recent publications appear in top disciplinary (British Journal of Political Science) and interdisciplinary journals (Public Opinion Quaterly).