Hi!
I’m a Professor of Politics at Griffith University.

I grew up in Dublin and graduated from Trinity College. Since then, I’ve spent most of my adult life in Italy and Australia. I received my PhD in Political Science from the University of Turin in 2008. I stayed there until 2011, working as a researcher and lecturer, before spending three years at the European University Institute in Florence as a Jean Monnet Fellow and a Marie Curie Fellow. I moved to Australia in 2014 to take up a Senior Lectureship at Griffith University in Brisbane. I have been Professor of Politics there since January 2018.

From 1 September 2026, I will be Matthew Flinders Professor of Political Science in the Jeff Bleich Centre at Flinders University in Adelaide.

My research focuses on populism and political parties. I specialise in studying how parties work, using interviews and surveys. I’ve interviewed hundreds of nationalist populist politicians and grassroots members across 18 countries. And I lead the YOUMEM project, which has surveyed thousands of mainstream party youth wing members in six countries.

I have authored several books and published multiple articles in leading journals. My latest book is Youth Wings of the Populist Radical Right, which was published by Oxford University Press in June 2026.

My research has been cited almost 7,000 times. I’ve also been fortunate enough to win around $4 million in grants and Fellowships from the Australian Research Council (ARC), the European Union, and the Swedish Research Council.

Most recently, Sofia Ammassari, Ferran Martinez i Coma and I were awarded over $825,000 from the ARC for a Discovery project 'Generation-Z engagement with political parties'. This will begin in January 2027.

The Australian's 2025 Research Magazine named me Australia's leading university researcher in Political Science. You can find further details about my research and CV elsewhere on this site.