Valeriya Mechkova
Universitetslektor, biträdande
Statsvetenskapliga institutionenUndersökningsledare, biträdande
Statsvetenskapliga institutionenOm Valeriya Mechkova
Presentation
Assistant Professor (Biträdande Universitetslektor) at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg. My main research interests concern democracy and political representation in comparative perspective.
Research
Technology and politics
I am interested in how new technologies reshape politics and democracy. I am Principal Investigator of the VR-funded project Does Machine Voting Strengthen Electoral Integrity?, together with Nikolay Marinov and Monika Bauhr. Using Bulgaria as a case, we examine whether electronic voting machines can strengthen electoral integrity, looking at outcomes such as voter turnout, invalid ballots, trust, audit results, and experiences of vote buying.
I am also a researcher at the V-Dem Institute and co-PI of the Digital Society Project (DSP), together with Steven Wilson, Daniel Pemstein, and Brigitte Seim. The project studies the relationship between the internet and politics around the world. In our current work, we use Twitter data from nine countries to study how political candidates behave online, with a particular focus on toxic speech and polarization.
More broadly, I am interested in both sides of the relationship between technology and democracy: how technology can amplify polarization, hate, and other democratic challenges, but also how technological innovation can offer new ways to solve political problems and strengthen democratic institutions.
Women's political empowerment
Another research passion of mine is women’s political representation and rights. Currently, together with Johannes Lindvall, I am working on a project that connects women’s entry into the labor market to the Swedish suffrage movement. We examine how the expansion of female-dominated professions contributed to the movement for women’s political rights and its subsequent implications for the welfare state. In previous work, I studied whether women’s descriptive representation translated into substantive representation, using historical evidence from Sweden. In particular, I examined how women’s entry into municipal councils in the early decades of democracy shaped the development of the Swedish welfare state and the implementation of women’s policy priorities.
More broadly, in this part of my research, I use historical research to understand why opportunities and rights for women advanced rapidly in some areas while changing much more slowly in others.
I also work part-time with the policy and outreach program of the V-Dem Institute. I have worked as consultant for USAID, the World Bank, Community of Democracies, and International IDEA. Previously I worked as V-Dem’s analyst and data operations manager, starting from May 2013 until August 2016.
Teaching
I am course coordinator for the course SK1214 Democracy and Democratization in Comparative Perspective, which is taught at Bachelor level. I also teach advanced seminars for Master students also on democratization.
I often supervise BA and MA students on variety of topics, often about women's rights and representation, democracy and its challenges, internet and social media.
I am co-supervisor for two excellent PhD students: Gard Olav Dietrichson and Niklas Waldner.
In terms of technical skills, I specialize in time-series cross-sectional data analysis and more recently, text analysis.
Education
In January 2022, I defended my PhD dissertation titled "Understanding the Conditions and Consequences of Women's Political Representation". In my dissertation I study whether and under what conditions women's political representation transforms politics, particularly focusing on development outcomes such as economic growth, infant and maternal mortality. My supervisors were Ellen Lust and Lena Wängnerud.
Master’s degree in International Administration and Global Governance, University of Gothenburg, 2014.
Bachelor’s degree in International Relations, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, 2012.