Contact
Biography
Will Daniel is Associate Professor in Comparative Politics in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham (UK). He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and teaches modules in comparative politics and research methods. He also serves as the School's Director of Admissions and External Relations and Co-Director for the REPRESENT Research Centre for the Study of Parties and Democracy.
Prior to the University of Nottingham, Will was Assistant Professor of Political Science at Francis Marion University in South Carolina (USA). He obtained his PhD from the Department of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh in 2013, where he was also affiliated with the University's European Union Center of Excellence and held visiting doctoral studentships at Sciences Po - Paris, Université Libre de Bruxelles, and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
Will holds an MA in Political Science and Graduate Certificates in European Union Studies and Western European Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, a BA in French and Political Science from Wake Forest University, and has studied at The German School at Middlebury College.
Expertise Summary
Will is interested in how political institutions condition the behaviour of political elites, particularly in legislative and party politics settings. He has written broadly on political careers in Europe and is especially interested in questions of gender and sexuality in political representation. He is an expert in European Union politics, with an emphasis on the European Parliament, and particular country expertise in French politics. He also has subject expertise and interests in social media and digital campaigns.
Will's research has appeared in The Journal of Politics, West European Politics, Research & Politics, Party Politics, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, Politics & Gender, European Union Politics, Journal of European Integration, The Journal of European Public Policy, and The Journal of Legislative Studies.
His second book, Quotas as Game Changers for the Recruitment, Selection, and Performance of Elected Politicians, with Andrea Aldrich (Yale University), will be published by Oxford University Press in 2025. His first monograph, Career Behaviour and the European Parliament: All Roads Lead through Brussels?, was published by Oxford University Press in 2015.
Teaching Summary
At the University of Nottingham, Will regularly provides teaching on the following modules:
- POLI 1014 - Intro to Comparative Politics (module convener)
- POLI 2014 - Crises and Controversies in European Politics
- POLI 2047 - How Voters Decide
- POLI 3121 - Gender and Political Representation (module co-convener)
Current students can book on for office hours during term time, using the School of Politics and IR booking page.
Research Summary
Will's current research continues to examine the nexus between political institutions and individual behaviour in political representation. Ongoing work addresses these dynamics for gender and… read more
Selected Publications
PhD Supervision
Will is interested in supervising students who want to work in the following areas:
- European Union and European integration
- Legislative politics and political parties
- Gender, sexuality and political representation
- Individual backgrounds and career paths
- Digital campaigning and social media
- Mixed method research designs using bespoke sources of data
Interested students should reach out directly by email to discuss project ideas, prior to applying.
Supervision of successfully completed PhD theses:
Ongoing supervision of PhD students:
- Sarah Jeu (2021-): 'China's Cyber Power and the Social Construction of Technology' [2nd supervisor]
- Indira Barykbayeva (2023-): 'Vertical Gender Segregation at Senior Leadership Levels of Civil Service in Kazakhstan' [1st supervisor]
Current Research
Will's current research continues to examine the nexus between political institutions and individual behaviour in political representation. Ongoing work addresses these dynamics for gender and representation, digital campaigning, and political careers.
Drawing upon novel data collected on the 2022 French legislative elections, he continues to work on the determinants of online campaigning behaviour, examining the role of political experience, personal background, and partisanship with Elise Frelin, Max-Valentin Robert, and Laurence Rowley-Abel. In EU politics, he is working on a new study of cross-platform social media campaigning during the 2024 elections with Lukas Obholzer. He has also recently completed a paper on the importance of individual background for Commission cabinets with Steffen Hurka.
Past Research
Will recently completed a book manuscript with Andrea Aldrich (Yale) on the effect of gender quota implementation on political career trajectories in Europe, which will be published by Oxford University Press in 2025. He provided evidence to the Welsh Senedd's Reform Bill Committee that draws upon this work.
He also recently completed a Digital Society Project-funded candidate study in French politics, where he directed a team of postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers to collect data on the online behaviour of all candidates during the 2022 French legislative elections. The team continues to write several articles from the dataset, including an exploration of online speech patterns among radical right-wing candidates, as well as the effects of incumbency on party discipline in online messaging.
Will's first book, Career Behaviour and the European Parliament: All Roads Lead through Brussels?, was published by Oxford University Press in 2015. The project explores institutional change in the European Parliament and its effect on the career paths of its membership. To do so, he examines the role of legislative professionalization and national political party gatekeepers on the career behavior and advancement strategies of European Parliament legislators.
Related research on the legislative behavior of Members of the European Parliament that builds on this volume has appeared in JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, European Union Politics, Party Politics, Journal of European Integration, The Journal of European Public Policy, The Journal of Legislative Studies, Research & Politics, Politics & Gender, The Journal of Politics, and in the form of various ongoing working papers and book chapters.
Future Research
Will is currently planning new research on how shared personal experience among politicians from marginalised or minoritised backgrounds can foster communities of support to reach across political party differences. His next project in this area, Queering the Commons: Overcoming polarisation with identity-based connections, has been awarded a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship for 2025.
The project will explore how LGBTQIA+ legislative parliamentary networks in four prominent legislatures (UK House of Commons, Scottish Parliament, French National Assembly, and the European Parliament) affects the day-to-day behaviour of its members. The project takes inspiration from scholarship on ethnic and gender identity's effects on political behaviour that has been less explored for sexuality. It argues that identities that divide us in one setting might bind us in another.