CARTSS-Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VISITING SCHOLAR

Ulrik Kjaer

 

 

I have been granted a sabbatical from Department of Political Science at University of Southern Denmark where I hold a position as Associate Professor. This has allowed me to spend the AY 2006/7 in the US, and I’m so fortunate to have been welcomed as visiting research scholar at CARTSS.

 

I received my Ph.D. in 2000 after I had worked on a project entitled “Political Recruitment in Danish Local Politics”. Since then I have sort of broken the subject of my dissertation apart and now have two major research interests, namely “political recruitment” and “local governments”.

 

Within the field of political recruitment I have recently participated in a study mapping every single MP who has served in the Danish parliament in its entire history (1849-2005). This study has been conducted as a part of the European Union sponsored EurElite programme covering 11 countries, and I’m currently working with co-authors to finish articles on “Female representation” and “Geographical representation”, using data from this comparative study.

 

Within the field of local government studies I have recently finished a study on municipal size and local democracy (together with my colleague Poul Erik Mouritzen). At the moment I’m working on an article on Danish local elections and especially the impact the recent municipal amalgamation in Denmark has had on the representation of under-represented demographical groups. I’m also involved in a project studying local political leadership (together with my colleague Rikke Berg). We have done a survey with all Danish mayors which has been a part of the comparative Polleader study including 17 European countries. We have also made an extensive case-study of four Danish mayors which we are analyzing at the moment.

 

While at CARTSS I will be finishing a book (in Danish) on Local Political Leadership using the four-mayor case study mentioned above (together with my colleague – and wife – Rikke Berg who is also visiting scholar at CARTSS), writing a book chapter on one of the mayors for a publication comparing mayors in mainly American cities, writing an article on local elections, finishing another article on split-ticket voting, preparing a proposal for a new study on parliamentary candidates, drafting a questionnaire to be send out to all Danish councillors, starting up a paper on theories of political recruitment etc. However, I will also try to participate in seminars, meetings, brown bags etc. held at CARTSS and elsewhere on CU, just as I hope that my open-mindedness of ideas will be known and that I therefore will have the opportunity to engage also in more informal discussions with students and faculty.

 

Email: ulk@sam.sdu.dk

Web: http://www.sam.sdu.dk/staff/ulk