Zeynep Somer-Topcu

Zeynep Somer-Topcu is a Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in European politics, political parties, and voter behavior. She serves as a chief editor at the British Journal of Political Science, Vice-President of the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA), and Chair of the Diversity Committee of the European Political Science Society (EPSS).

• Ph.D., University of California, Davis

Her research examines how political parties formulate electoral strategies and how voters perceive and respond to these strategies. Key themes include gendered party leadership dynamics, campaign rhetoric, and the interplay between party policy shifts and voter behavior in parliamentary democracies. Recent work includes the coauthored book Glass Ceilings, Glass Cliffs, and Quicksands, analyzing women party leaders' career trajectories.

The 15 most recent publications focus on topics such as gender in political leadership, message distortion in campaigns, Brexit rhetoric effects, and voter perceptual accuracy. These works span disciplines including political science, gender studies, and comparative politics, with subfields like electoral accountability, multidimensional voting, and institutional bias mitigation.

At UT Austin, she teaches courses on Western European Politics and Comparative Political Parties at both undergraduate and graduate levels, alongside methods courses in political science.