Mette Marie Stæhr Harder

Mette Marie Stæhr Harder is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for European, Comparative, and Constitutional Legal Studies within the Faculty of Law at the University of Copenhagen. Her research falls within comparative politics with a focus on parliamentary representation of Indigenous peoples, Greenland, and emotions in politics.

Her educational background includes:

• PhD in Political Science from Roskilde University (awarded January 1, 2018)
• MA in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen (awarded December 1, 2008)
• BA in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen (awarded June 2, 2003)

Dr. Harder's research interests span comparative politics, parliamentary representation (particularly of Indigenous peoples and Greenland in the Danish parliament), emotions in politics, gender equality, and constitutional law. She examines fundamental questions about how Greenland is represented in the Danish parliament, whether Indigenous peoples can be well-represented in second-nation parliaments, how the Danish parliament controls the Danish Government, and how the Danish Folketing addresses gender equality issues. Her work integrates theoretical frameworks with empirical analysis of political systems.

Her publications demonstrate consistent focus on Arctic politics, Indigenous representation, and gender equality in political systems, with recent work examining cross-parliamentary control mechanisms, diplomatic relations involving Greenland, and theoretical advancements in representation theory. The trajectory shows increasing specialization in North Atlantic political arrangements while maintaining theoretical contributions to representation studies.

Her achievements include:

• Representation Best Paper Prize 2020 for 'Pitkin's Second Way: Freeing Representation Theory from Identity'
• Membership in the EU-project ENCODE studying emotions in politics
• Grants from the Carlsberg Foundation for research on Greenland's representation
• References in 1 Wikipedia page and mentions across multiple academic platforms

Dr. Harder serves as Co-Chair of The International Political Science Association (IPSA) Research Committee on Indigenous Politics (2022-2025) and is an Editorial Board Member of Nationalism & Ethnic Politics. She has previously held positions as Senior Lecturer at Karlstad University (2020-2024), Carlsberg Postdoctoral Fellow at Stockholm University (2019-2022), and External Lecturer at Texas Tech University (2018-2019).

Her teaching portfolio includes Comparative Politics, Danish Constitutional Law and EU Constitutional Law, Human Rights and Gender, 'Gender, Politics, and the Law', Methods and Research Design, as well as Sociology and Theory of Law.