Stefanie Reher

It'd be great to connect when you're back in town!

Congratulations, great job! 🥳

@stefaniereher.bsky.social and my recent article on 'Public Opinion towards Interest Groups' now appears in print in the European Journal of Political Research

More on its contents in the 🧵 below

@ecpr.bsky.social @ecprinterestgroups.bsky.social

Parliamentlive.tv Modernisation Committee

Highly recommend watching/listening to this oral evidence session on Access to the House of Commons. Powerful testimonies by MPs Marie Tidball, Sarah Bool, Marsha de Cordova, Steve Darling, and former MP Robert Halfon on their experiences of barriers in Parliament. parliamentlive.tv/event/index/...

Postdoctoral Researcher Position (3 years) in Political Science as part of the ERC-funded Lobbying (A)symmetry Project

🥁The LOBBYMETRY project is hiring:
1 PostDoc & 1 fully-funded PhD 🥳
Come to beautiful Copenhagen to research lobbying, informational quality and public policy formulation!

PostDoc: jobportal.ku.dk/videnskabeli...

Please spread the word & and do not hesitate to reach out with questions!

Stories From the Trenches: The Difference Disability Makes in the Campaign Experiences of Candidates With Disabilities Objective Persons with disabilities are a large and significant segment of the American public, yet Americans with disabilities are only beginning to be considered as political candidates or officeh...

It's the link from the journal website but you're right, it doesn't work - this one should: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Great to see Sally Friedman and Richard Scott's article on the campaign experiences of candidates with disabilities published: doi.org/10.1111/ssqu...

Familiar stories of inaccessibility, costs, and prejudice, but also of good conversations, changed minds, perseverance, and a shared mission.

@elizabethjevans.bsky.social and I had the opportunity to talk to @alanrenwick.bsky.social about our research and our book Disability and Political Representation on the UCL Uncovering Politics Podcast. Thanks for hosting us!

If voters know the candidate's party, there is no electoral penalty for disabled candidates.

However, they still get a small boost from left-wing voters who value their ability to represent underrepresented groups.

Please message me if you'd like the free access link to the article.

Voting for Disabled Candidates | The Journal of Politics Despite important advances in the rights of disabled people, stigma and prejudice remain widespread. Meanwhile, disabled political representatives are few and far between. This raises the question: do...

My article on voter support for disabled candidates is now published at doi.org/10.1086/732994.

I find that left-wing voters in UK+US favour disabled candidates, while right-wing voters prefer non-disabled candidates - but only because voters assume disabled candidates to be more left-wing. [1/2]

Very interesting study, congrats! Do you have any insights on disabled voters?

We’re thrilled to announce our new Academic Advisory Board, bringing together some of the brightest minds to provide insight, data, and rigorous thinking to enhance our campaigns. Excited to collaborate and learn from their expertise! 👩‍🎓

bit.ly/40Eik7n

Welcome to Britain’s Victorian Christmas, where volunteers in Santa hats fulfil the basic functions of the state | Frances Ryan There is something inescapably bleak about a nation that relies on charity appeals to fix its social and economic problems, says Guardian columnist Frances Ryan

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Grateful to @sotonpolitics.bsky.social @unisouthampton.bsky.social for covering the costs of the production of a (free) easy read version of mine and @stefaniereher.bsky.social book Disability and Political Representation. @disrightsuk.bsky.social eprints.soton.ac.uk/494719/ #AccessibleAcademia

House of Commons should consider electronic voting, MPs say in letter Exclusive: New MPs and backbenchers complain of wasted time in document sent to leader of Commons

Great to see MPs raising the issue of electronic voting www.theguardian.com/politics/202... it's one of the topics that @stefaniereher.bsky.social and I proposed in our submission to the Modernisation Committee. Accessibility should not be sacrificed on the altar of tradition.

While one in five people in the UK are disabled, their number among elected representatives remains disproportionately low. In ongoing efforts to make politics more inclusive and diverse, disabled people often remain sidelined. As a politically relevant identity, disability is associated with a shared set of experiences and policy interests which are often overlooked. This is at least in part owing to the under-representation of disabled politicians, which is likely also contributing to a sense of political alienation. Thus, tackling the barriers that disabled people experience in the political recruitment process is not only a matter of democratic justice and equality, but also essential for ensuring that disabled people’s needs and concerns are recognised and met. This article outlines the obstacles that disabled people experience in pursuing elected office--including inaccessibility, inadequate financial resources and ableist institutions and cultures--and offers recommendations to

In our short @politicalquarterly.bsky.social article "No Level Playing Field" @elizabethjevans.bsky.social and I discuss the barriers to disability representation in politics:

Why are there so few disabled people in politics, why does it matter, and what needs to be done?

doi.org/10.1111/1467...

Disability and Representation in British Politics - Elizabeth Evans, Stefanie Reher, 2024

Here's me and @stefaniereher.bsky.social in Political Insight on disability & representation in British politics journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Do citizens use interest groups aligned with their political views as shortcuts to assess if their views are well represented, similar to political parties?

In new @ecpr.bsky.social Eur Jour Pol Research paper, @stefaniereher.bsky.social & I explore this ❓ using survey exp's in the US, UK, & D

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Next Wednesday @robfordmancs.bsky.social & myself have arranged an ECR the day before EPOP officially begins.
It includes @edmundkelly.bsky.social @giacomomelli.bsky.social @elenapro.bsky.social @vlazarov.bsky.social @jamesdgriffiths.bsky.social @anandmenon.bsky.social @bogatyrev.bsky.social

We worked with the good folk at Go Easy Read to produce a freely available PDF version of our book Disability & Political Representation. Message me or @stefaniereher.bsky.social for a copy! #accessibleacademia

... publicly disclose mental health conditions in ongoing research with @robjohns75.bsky.social and Luca Bernardi. It appears that voters value politicians' openness and lived experience. Still, negative stigma of course remains, often fuelled by pundits and opponents questioning their abilities.

You're completely right, we need to study a wider variety of disabilities. Loewen & Rheault (doi.org/10.1017/S0007123419000127) show that voters are more hesitant to elect candidates with depression than with physical illnesses - although we found that UK voters react positively to MPs who...

🦾Non-disabled people feel better represented by non-disabled candidates - suggesting that disability is a relevant political identity to them as well.

🦾This means: we need more disabled politicians so that disabled people feel represented and not excluded from politics. (3/3)

🦾This feeling is strongest for those who identify with the disability community, but also exists among those who don't.

🦾The representative link cannot be fully explained by assumed shared preferences - disabled people value descriptive representation in and of itself. (2/3)

Abstract: Studies have shown that citizens from minoritized groups, including women and people of color, tend to feel better represented by politicians who share their identity, often translating into electoral support. Is this also the case for disabled people, one of the largest yet often ignored minority groups in our societies? Analyses of data from a conjoint survey experiment with 6,000 respondents in the UK and US show that disabled people indeed feel better represented by disabled candidates. This representational link does not require a sense of group identity and is only partly explained by perceptions of shared policy preferences. The study also reveals that non-disabled people feel better represented by non-disabled candidates. The findings highlight the relevance of disability as a political identity, bolstering calls for more disabled people in politics, and might help explain the disability gaps in political trust and participation.

@elizabethjevans.bsky.social and I have a new article out: "Someone Like Me? Disability Identity and Representation Perceptions". doi.org/10.1007/s111...

Through survey experiments in UK+US we found:

🦾Disabled citizens feel better represented by disabled than non-disabled candidates. (1/3)

Very pleased that the audiobook for Disability and Political Representation by me and @stefaniereher.bsky.social is out now (no they did not ask me to narrate it...) play.google.com/store/books/... a freely available easy read report version we've created with Go Easy Read will be out soon!

Committee and the study of disability within political science more generally. I hope that we can have a conversation rather than divisions amongst our community, and come together to support the Committee in their work.

I completely agree that disabled people (in our profession and elsewhere) need to be represented by disabled people (as well as allies). However, the Committee includes several (a majority I believe) disabled scholars. Moreover, all of the members have put a lot of effort into both the Status...

Working on creating an email list for political scientists with an interest in disability (broadly defined). We are working on a Status Committee, panels for APSA and more! If you or someone you know is interested, let me know! Polisky

Are you interested in funding to study for a PhD in social sciences in the UK? Here's a long thread describing how things work.