M. Selen Ayirtman Ercan

Dr Selen Ercan is an Associate Professor of Politics at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, University of Canberra. Her work sits at the intersection of normative democratic theory and empirical political research, and examines a wide range of topics including the politics of inclusion and exclusion in multicultural societies, the prospects for public deliberation in the face of value conflicts and polarised public debates, and the potential of new forms of political participation and protest movements in reviving democratic practice. 

Selen’s recent book, Mending Democracy. Democratic Repair in Disconnected Times (2020, Oxford University Press, with Hendriks and Boswell) captures the small-scale work of everyday actors aimed at repairing connections across democratic systems, and provides a theoretically informed guidance for enabling democratic reform in disconnected times. 

Selen has published over 30 articles and book chapters on deliberative democracy, social movements, multiculturalism, and research methods in Social Sciences. Her publications have appeared in various journals including: International Political Science Review, Policy and Politics, Australian Journal of Political Science, Environmental Politics, Social Movement Studies, and Critical Policy Studies. Two of her articles won the best paper prize of the journal, Policy and Politics in 2017 and 2019.  

Selen holds a BA in Political Science and Public Administration from the Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey), a MA in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Heidelberg (Germany), and a PhD in Political Science from the Australian National University. She has held research positions at the University of Mannheim (MZES), Australian National University; as well as visiting research and teaching positions in the Political Science programs of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil, 2014), Nagoya University (Japan, 2015) and Stuttgart University (Germany, 2017).

Current Projects /Grants

• Chief Investigator (2021-2024) Democratic Resilience. The Public Sphere and Extremist Attacks. Australian Research Council, Discovery Project ($511, 000)

• Chief Investigator (2021-2024) Monitoring Deliberative Integrity in Australia. Australian Research Council, Special Research Initiative Grant ($200,000).

• Chief Investigator (2020-2021) Connecting to Parliament (A collaborative project between Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance and the Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability and the Office of Andrew Leigh) 

• Partner Investigator (2020-22) Deliberative democray in the face of democratic crisis: contributions, dilemmas and ways forward. Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development Research Grant ($15,000)

• Partner Investigator (2017- ) Participedia Global Research Project, working on the Australian contingent (with Parry, L.)

Google Scholar Profile