Valeriya Mechkova
Universitetslektor, biträdande
StatsvetenskapligaUndersökningsledare, bitr
StatsvetenskapligaOm 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. I aim to understand how representation and accountability can be used to change the life of ordinary people. More recently, I have also engaged with questions at the intersection between Internet and politics.
I am part of the project "Public Services in Comparative and Historical Perspective", and I often collaborate with researchers from the V-Dem Institute. 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.
Currently, I am working on a project studying the extent to which descriptive representation of women leads to their substantive representation using historical evidence from Sweden. In particular, I focus on how women’s presence in municipal councils in the early days of democracy (1920s-30s) shaped the development of the Swedish welfare system, in particular when it comes to implementing women’s priorities. With Johannes Lindvall, I alsto study the suffrage movement in Sweden, how it is connected to the development of female-dominated professions, and its subsequent effects on the welfare state.
I am co-PI of the Digital Society Project (DSP), which aims to answer some of the most important questions surrounding interactions between the internet and politics. Right now I am working on a project that uses Twitter data across nine countries to analyse political candidates behaviour online.
In terms of technical skills, I specialize in time-series cross-sectional data analysis.
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.
Education
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.