Centre for Elections, Media and Participation (CEMaP)

Description

Established in 2008, the Centre for Elections, Media and Participation (CEMaP) at the University of Exeter is dedicated to interdisciplinary research on social and political participation. Comprised of scholars from various disciplines including politics, psychology, and economics, CEMaP brings together expertise from different colleges of the university to cover a wide range of themes in comparative research and analysis, such as media studies, electoral research, institutional analysis, and civil society research. Reflecting the broader research priorities of the university, CEMaP sponsors special workshops and events that foster collaboration among leading scholars from both British and international universities, as well as students and PhD researchers working on related themes.

One of CEMaP's priorities is to encourage and facilitate postgraduate training, which includes several grants and projects:

• Members of CEMaP have been awarded a four-year ESRC grant (2010-2014) to facilitate research and training in the area of Comparative Cross-National Electoral Research (CCNER).
• CEMaP members hold an EU Marie Curie European Industrial Doctorate (EID) grant on 'Industry and Doctoral Training in Vote Advice Applications' that involves staff with various disciplinary backgrounds and trains several PhD students.
• The centre further hosts an Intra-European Fellowship (IEF) on 'Unstable Party Supply in Established and New Democracies: Causes and Electoral Consequences'. * How Citizens Try to Influence Politics and Why (POLPART)', an ERC-funded project for which Clare Saunders (Politics) is the UK partner, includes a funded PhD studentship.
• Similarly, the ERC-funded project STATORG 'State Encroachment on Civil Society?', directed by CEMaP staff, includes two funded studentships and a postdoctoral research fellow.
• Exeter was the hub of ELECDEM, a Marie Curie Initial Training Network in electoral democracy that brought together 11 expert teams from 9 European countries and provided substantive and methodological training in elections research to a cohort of early stage and experienced researchers.

CEMaP is currently undertaking a number of projects funded by various organizations such as the European Research Council, British Academy, the Economic and Social Research Council, the European Union, the Leverhulme Trust, the National Science Foundation, the Nuffield Foundation, and the New Zealand Electoral Commission. These projects involve collaboration with researchers from various institutions worldwide, including the University of Amsterdam, Australian National University, University of Sydney, University of Auckland, University of California, San Diego, University of California, Riverside, Carleton College, Dokuz Eylul University, Emory University, the European University Institute, University of Iowa, University of Cologne, University of Manchester, University of Minnesota, University of Oxford, Plymouth University, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

In addition to research projects, CEMaP provides data and web-based resources for projects that its staff are associated with, such as the New Zealand Election Study. The centre also maintains an ongoing relationship with The Elections Centre (TEC) at Plymouth University, which serves as another strong base of electoral research in close proximity.

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

Founding year

2008

Contact details

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University affiliation(s)

University of Exeter
Exeter