Meet the Methods School Directors

Andrea is Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) in Computational Social and Political Sciences at the University of Milan. He previously held positions at the University of Zurich and the University of Lucerne, and earned his PhD from the European University Institute. His research examines political behaviour in contemporary information environments, with a focus on political misinformation, media effects, and elections. Methodologically, he combines causal inference, quantitative methods, and computational approaches. He has designed and taught numerous courses in statistics, research design, and computational social science, and has been active in promoting transparent and reproducible research practices.

Andrea's research focuses on political behaviour, political communication, and democratic decision-making in digital information environments. He studies how media systems, political leaders, and political (mis)information shape political attitudes and electoral behaviour.

Andrea's work relies on quantitative and computational methods, with particular attention to causal inference, measurement, and research design. He has designed and taught numerous courses in statistics, research design, and computational social science, and has been active in promoting transparent and reproducible research practices.

Theresa is Full Professor of Democratic Political Decision-Making at the University of Hamburg. Her research examines challenges for democracy and its processes, including democratic backsliding, digitalisation and diversity. Before joining the University of Hamburg in 2025, she worked and studied at universities in Switzerland, Italy, Hungary and Germany.

Theresa’s research focuses on comparative politics, with an emphasis on political behaviour, institutions, and communication. She studies how democratic systems confront internal and external challenges, including shifting patterns of political competition and the digital transformation of politics. Although she frequently examines the politics of Central‑Eastern Europe, her work also spans broader cross‑national contexts.

Methodologically, Theresa's work relies on quantitative and computational approaches, especially the analysis of large‑scale textual, survey, and digital trace data. She is particularly interested in integrating digital perspectives into substantive research questions and employs a wide range of tools, including machine learning, language models, and image analysis.