Selen A. Ercan is a Professor in Political Science and Director of the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. She leads the Centre’s research cluster on  Building Democratic Resilience and is the Chief Investigator of the Australian Research Council Discovery Project (2022-26), Democratic Resilience: The Public Sphere and Extremist Attacks.

Her research examines how deliberative engagement can contribute to more inclusive democratic governance and strengthen democratic resilience.

Selen has published three books and more than fifty journal articles and book chapters on the theory and practice of deliberative democracy, democratic innovations, social movements, alternative forms of political participation, and social science research methods. Her recent publications include Mending Democracy: Democratic Repair in Disconnected Times (Oxford University Press, 2020, with Hendriks and Boswell), and Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy (lead editor, Oxford University Press, 2022). 

Her scholarly contributions have been recognised with multiple awards, including: the Best Paper Prize from the journal Policy and Politics (2018 and 2020), the Research Excellence Award from the Faculty of Business, Goverment and Law (2019 and 2020), and the Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Canberra (2021). In 2024, she received the Academic Leadership Award from the Australian Political Studies Association for her leadership and scholarly contributions to Political Science.

Selen’s research is driven by a commitment to informing and improving democratic practice.  She has led the design and analysis of several deliberative townhalls, as part of the Connecting to Parliament project; developed the Building Democratic Resilience guidance for NSW’s Connected Communities Unit; and is currently leading the development of the Deliberative Engagement Guidebook  for public servants, commissioned by the NSW Premier’s Department (forthcoming).

Selen has received research grants from instiutions including the Australian Research Council, New South Wales Government, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Heinrich Böll Foundation (Germany), and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada). She has held research appointments at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (Germany) and the Australian National University, and visiting fellowhips in Political Science programs at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil), Nagoya University (Japan), and Stuttgart University (Germany).

 She speaks English, German, and Turkish.

Full list of publications available in GoogleScholar

Recent interviews, featuring Selen A. Ercan’s research:

• Deliberation at the Heart of Democracy. Uncover, 2024.
• Inspiring Women Series: Selen A. Ercan. BroadAgenda, 2024.
• Connecting to Parliament: Deliberating with Politicians. Democracy Technologies, 2023.

Current Positions outside of the University of Canberra 

• Chair, Participatory Governance Cluster of the global research project, Participedia, Strengthening democracy by mobilizing knowledge of democratic innovations (2020-present).
• Associate Editor, Democratic Theory. An Interdisciplinary Journal (2014-present). 

Google Scholar Profile