Valeriya Mechkova
Associate Senior Lecturer
Department of Political 91̽»¨Deputy Chief Analyst
Department of Political 91̽»¨About Valeriya Mechkova
Presentation
Assistant Professor (Biträdande Universitetslektor) at the Department of Political 91̽»¨, University 91̽»¨. 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 , 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 . 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 91̽»¨, 2014.
Bachelor’s degree in International Relations, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, 2012.