Ursula Daxecker
Principal Investigator
Ursula Daxecker is professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam where she is a member of the research group Political Economy and Transnational Governance. At the University of Amsterdam, she is co-director of the Amsterdam Center for Conflict Studies (with Erella Grassiani).
Dr. Daxecker’s work is interested in democracy and how it is undermined by political violence, extreme strategies by political parties, and organized crime. Her research shows that democracy suffers when identities become overly politicized and extreme, such as when parties use hostile rhetoric and behavior to sharpen voter identities. From 2020-2025, she is principal investigator of the project Elections, Violence, and Parties funded by the European Research Council. Her research has previously been funded by the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO), the European Commission’s Marie Curie Actions, and the U.S. Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative.
Dr. Daxecker directs EVaP and contributes broadly to the project. The project aims to understand the dynamics of electoral violence in the Global South, with a special emphasis on India and Nigeria. The project proposes a novel theoretical framework that highlights political parties as key intermediate actors in the production of electoral contention. Over the course of five years, Daxecker and the project team will examine the conditions leading to electoral violence with a mixed-method approach, ranging from fieldwork interviews to advanced quantitative methods.
Neeraj Prasad
Research Fellow
Neeraj Prasad is a Research Fellow with the Elections, Violence, and Parties (EVaP) and, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. His research interests lie at the intersection of political economy and comparative politics. Specifically, his research examines how inequality shapes political mobilization in both non-violent and violent contexts. He uses a mixed-methods approach that combines statistical analysis using large demographic datasets with surveys, field research, case studies, and comparative historical analysis. His work has been published in Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties.
Noyonika Das
PhD candidate
Noyonika Das is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. She holds a Master’s degree in Society and Culture and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology. As part of the EVaP project, she focuses her research on election violence in India. She is particularly interested in the role of subnational incumbents collaborating with non-state actors in establishing electoral control, which often involves various patterns of violent mobilization. Her work also explores how local-level electoral contests can be especially vulnerable to violence, shaping broader dynamics of electoral control.
Maureen Fubara
PhD candidate
Maureen Fubara is a PhD candidate with the Elections, Violence, and Parties project (EVAP), and the Department of Political Science in the University of Amsterdam. She holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies and Diplomacy. As part of the EVaP project, she focuses on electoral violence in Nigeria. Her research lies at the intersection of political economy and violence. Her multi-method dissertation, “Decentralized Despotism: How Subnational Incumbents Produce Electoral Violence,” analyzes how rents shape incumbents’ capacity to recruit actors for violence and how these actors assert their agency within these processes. In addition to her academic research, Maureen has a strong passion for teaching. During her PhD, she has taught courses on political research methods and international relations.
Aryabin Hasan
Research Assistant
Aryabin Hasan is currently working as a Research Assistant in the EVaP project under the Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam since May, 2023. He has also worked for the European External Action Service as a Trainee in the Political Section of the EU Delegation to India & Bhutan. He has done a Bachelor’s in Political Science from Jadavpur University (Kolkata, India) and a Master’s in Public Administration from Jamia Millia Islamia (New Delhi, India). He has keen interests in Indian politics, electoral studies, new public management, international relations and diplomacy.
Titas Ganguly
Research Assistant
Titas Ganguly is currently working as a Research Assistant with EVaP. He is engaged in processing and coding media reports on violent incidents and identifying religious rallies that have caused political tensions in the Indian state of West Bengal. He recently received his Masters degree in Politics and Sociology of North America from Freie Universitaet Berlin and has a BA in Political Science from Jadavpur University, Kolkata.
Aamir Raza
Research Assistant
Aamir Raza is currently working as a Research Assistant in the EVaP project under the Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam since July 2024. He has also worked with the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi as a Research Associate and has been associated with Lokniti-CSDS as a Researcher. He has completed a Bachelor’s in Political Science from Aligarh Muslim University (Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh) and a Master’s in Political Science from Jamia Millia Islamia (New Delhi, India). He has a deep interest in electoral politics, minority studies, and local governance in India.