Ny Videnskabelig Assistent - Emil Niclas Meyer-Hansen
Hey everybody!
My name is Emil, and I’ve started on January 15th, 2026, as a research assistant on Kees van Kersbergen’s SLOMODEMO project. I will be affiliated with the Comparative Politics-section, and you may recognize me as a former student – as I completed my MSc. in Political Science here in July 2024 – or as a student assistant, as I’ve previously worked on numerous projects in the department (e.g., ROPH) and at the Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy (CFA).
During my master’s, I specialized in political and evolutionary psychology, causal inference, Bayesian statistics, data science, and public management. My thesis involved political homophily, where I, under the fortuitous supervision of Troels Bøggild, used an experimental design to investigate the possible effects of the eye and hair color of political candidates on voter support. I’ve since worked as an independent researcher, writing papers on Bayesian psychometrics, causal inference with AI-agentic respondents, and a Bayesian Information-theoretic operationalization of surprise (see my Github).
In the SLOMODEMO project, we try to answer the question: ‘How and under what conditions is social acceleration negatively affecting liberal democracy’s capacity to legitimately solve problems?’, and my work as a research assistant will involve operationalizing and measuring this latent concept of Social Acceleration and identify government strategies for solving its negative effects. This assignment will require latent variable analysis and computational methods (e.g., webscraping) that closely match my methodological interests, and I look forward to contribute to this project.
In my spare time, I read curriculum materials from AU courses provided by course instructors (e.g., Machine Learning Methods in Empirical Economics); and I enjoy exercising by running and working out at the local gym; I watch movies and enjoy improving my skills in Italian cooking.
Anyone is welcome to drop by my office (1332-124) for a chat about political psychology, Bayesian statistics, causal inference, AI-agentic research, or a similarly exciting topic!
