I work as an assistant professor at Leiden University. My research examines political parties in all facets: how they operate in parliaments, their positioning, their organization, their voters and their relationship with interest groups. I study political parties at the local level, the national level (with a focus on the Netherlands) and at the European level.
Earlier I worked as researcher the Documentation Centre Dutch Political Parties of Groningen University, as post-doctoral researcher at the Institute Public Administration of Leiden University, as a researcher at Bureau de Helling, the scientific institute of the Dutch Greens and as a PhD-researcher at the Institute of Political Science of Leiden University. I defended my thesis in 2012. It focused on the effect of the entry of new parties into the political arena on existing parties and the party system. My research concerned the reactions of parties in both the parliamentary and electoral arena. Before starting the PhD-program I studied Political Science and Philosophy of the Social Sciences at Leiden University.