Luana RUSSO

Bio

Luana Russo is Associate Professor in Political Behaviour and Quantitative Methods at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University. Her research focuses on political behaviour, political psychology, affective polarization, and democratic norms. She has also worked extensively on political identity and negative partisanship, exploring how attachments to one’s in-group and antagonism toward out-groups shape political attitudes.

Her current work examines how different ideas of democracy and perceptions of fairness influence citizens’ tolerance of democratic norm violations. She is particularly interested in understanding under which conditions individuals are willing to accept democratic backsliding if it benefits their preferred political outcomes.

Luana has a strong record of interdisciplinary and comparative research and values long-term collaboration across fields and institutions. Her work has been published in journals such as West European Politics, Electoral Studies, and Research & Politics.

She is also actively engaged in the international academic community, serving on the Executive Committee of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) and as Co-Director of the Centre for European Research in Maastricht (CERiM). She sees research as a collective endeavour and is committed to building inclusive and stimulating environments for both colleagues and students.

CV
 

• Associate Professor in Political Behaviour and Quantitative Methods – Maastricht University (2024–present)

• Assistant Professor in Political Behaviour and Quantitative Methods – Maastricht University (2017–2024, tenured in 2019)

• Lecturer in Quantitative Methods – Maastricht University (2014–2017)

• Post-doctoral Researcher – Maastricht University (2014)

• Post-doctoral Researcher – Université de Lille 2 (2012–2013)

• Post-doctoral Researcher – Sciences Po Paris / CNRS (2011–2012)

Management and leadership roles

• Program Director – BA European Studies, Maastricht University (2022–2025)

• Associate Program Director – BA European Studies, Maastricht University (2021–2022)

• Coordinator – Minor in European Studies, Maastricht University (2018–2021)

Academic service

• Member – Executive Committee, European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) (2024–2030)

• Chair and founder – ECPR Standing Group on Affective Polarization (2022–ongoing)

• Co-editor-in-chief – Politics of the Low Countries (2021–2024)

• Member – University Council, Maastricht University (2021–2023)

• Editorial Board Member – Italian Political Science (2022–ongoing)

• Chair – ECPR Standing Group on Political Methodology (2020–2022)

• Member – Faculty Council, Maastricht University (2017–2021)

Areas of research