I am a Professor of Political Science and Director at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, University of Canberra.

My work sits at the intersection of normative theory and empirical research, and examines public deliberation in various settings ranging from structured forums to the wider public sphere in contemporary multicultural societies. My research seeks to understand and address the current problems of democracy from a deliberative perspective, while at the same time advancing this perspective into new directions.

Currently, I am leading a multi-institutional research project, Democratic Resilience: The Public Sphere and Extremist Attacks (funded by Australian Research Council, 2021-24). This project draws on the insights from deliberative democracy and cultural sociology to analyse the public sphere responses to extremist attacks in six different democracies including Australia, Britain, Italy, Germany, New Zealand, and USA. It aims to explain why some democracies prove fragile, succumbing to polarisation in the face of violent extremism, while others prove resilient and sustain an integrative discourse.

I have published over 50 articles and book chapters on deliberative democracy, contentious politics, multiculturalism, and interpretive/qualitative research methods. My publications have appeared in leading journals including: International Political Science Review, Policy and Politics, Political Studies, Environmental Politics, and Social Movement Studies. Two of my articles won the best paper prize of the journal, Policy and Politics in 2018 and 2020.  

I have received research grants and fellowships from, among others, Australian Research Council (multiple grants), New South Wales Government, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Australian National University, Heinrich Böll Foundation (Germany), and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada).  

I have held research positions at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (Germany), Australian National University (Australia); as well as visiting research/teaching fellowships in the Political Science programs of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil), Nagoya University (Japan) and Stuttgart University (Germany).

I received my PhD in Political Science from Australian National University (thesis supervisor: Prof John Dryzek), my MA in Political Science/Political Theory and Sociology from University of Heidelberg (thesis supervisor: Prof Wolfgang Merkel) and my BA in Political Science from Middle East Techinical Univeristy.

I speak English, German and Turkish.

Selected Publications

Books/ Journal Special Issues

1. Ercan, Selen A., Asenbaum, Hans, Curato, Nicole and Ricardo F. Mendonça (eds) (2022) Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.(Open access)

2. Hendriks, C., Ercan, S.A. and John Boswell (2020) Mending Democracy: Democratic Repair in Disconnected Times. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• • Featured/ reviewed in: Critical Policy Studies (Forum on Mending Democracy, 2022), European Journal of Political Theory (Book Review, 2021),Democracy Paradox (Podcast with Justin Kempf 2020), Policy Forum of the Asia and the Pacific Policy Society (2020), Democracy Sausage (Podcast with Mark Kenny 2020).

3. Elstub, Stephen, Ercan, Selen A. and Ricardo.F. Mendonça (eds) 2015. Deliberative Sytems in Theory and Practice. Critical Policy Studies (double symposium issue).

4. Ercan, Selen A. and Dryzek, John (eds) (2015) The Sites of Deliberative Democracy. Policy Studies.

5. Ercan, Selen A. and Gagnon, Jean Paul (eds) (2014) The Crisis of Democracy: Which Crisis? Which Democracy? Democratic Theory.

Articles/Book Chapters

1. Ercan, Selen A., Asenbaum, Hans and Ricardo F. Mendonça   (forthcoming) Performing democracy: Nonverbal protest through a democratic lens. Performance Research. 

2. Ercan, Selen A. and Hendriks, Carolyn (2022) Performing democracy through local protests: the case of Knitting Nannas against Gas. In: D. Vancic and M. Qvortrup (eds.) Complementary Democracy. The Art of  Deliberative Listening. DeGruyter, pp. 171-190.

3. Scudder, Molly, Ercan, Selen A., and McCallum, Kerry (2021) Institutional listening in deliberative democracy. Towards a deliberative logic of transmission. Politics (online first)

4. Mendonça, Ricardo F., Ercan, Selen.A. and Hans Asenbaum (2020) More than words: A multidimensional approach to deliberative democracy. Political Studies (online first)

5. Ercan, Selen A., Hendriks, Carolyn, and John Dryzek (2019) Public deliberation in an era of communicative plenty. Policy and Politics, 47(1):19-36. (Recepient of Ken Young Best Paper Award)

6. Ransan-Cooper, Hedda, Ercan, Selen A. and Sonya Duus (2018) When anger meets joy: How emotions mobilise and sustain the anti-coal seam gas movement in regional Australia. Social Movement Studies, 17(6):635-57.

7. Ercan, Selen A. (2017). From polarisation to pluralisation: A deliberative democratic approach to illiberal cultures. International Political Science Review, 38(1):114-27. 

8. Ercan, Selen A., Hendriks, Carolyn and John Boswell (2017) Studying public deliberation after the systemic turn: The crucial role for interpretive research. Policy and Politics 45(2): 195-212. (Recipient of Ken Young Best Paper Award)

9. Ercan, Selen A. (2017) Engagaging with extermism in a multicultural society: A deliberative democratic approach. Journal of Peacebuilding and Development 12(2):9-21.

10. Curato, Nicole, Dryzek, John, Ercan, Selen A., Hendriks, Carolyn and Simon Niemeyer (2017) Twelve key findings in deliberative democracy research. Deadalus, 28-38 (Open access).

11. Ercan, Selen A. and Dryzek, John (2015) The reach of deliberaitve democracy. Policy Studies 36(3):241-48.

12. Ercan, Selen A. (2015) Creating and sustaining evidence for 'failed multiculturalism' The case of 'honour killing' in Germany. American Behavioral Scientist 59(6): 658-78.

Research Reports

1. Ercan, Selen A., McSwiney, Jordan, Balint, Peter and John  Dryzek (2022) Building Democratic Resilience: Public Sphere Responses to Violent Extremism. Report for Department of Premier and Cabinet, New South Wales, Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Program, Australia. 

Full list of publications available in GoogleScholar

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).
• Co-Convener, European Consortium of Political Research (ECPR) Standing Group, Theoretical Perspectives to Policy Analysis (2020-present).
• Associate Editor, Democratic Theory. An Interdisciplinary Journal(2014-present). 

PhD Supervison

Current:

• Sahana Sehgal, (Primary Supervisor, University of Canberra)
• Madeleine Egan (Secondary Supervisor, University of Canberra)
• Anne Jedzini (Secondary Supervisor, University of Canberra)
• Friedel Marquardt (Secondary Supervisor, University of Canberra)
• Dianne Phillips (Secondary Supervisor, University of Canberra)
• Flavia Hanlen (Secondary Supervisor, University of Canberra)
• Jane Phuong (Advisor, University of Canberra)

Completed: 

• Jane Alver (Primary Supervisor, Univeristy of Canberra)
• Kei Nishiyama (Secondary Supervisor, Univeristy of Canberra)
• Samuel Antero (Secondary Supervisor, University of Canberra)
• Thaneshwar Bhusal (Advisor, University of Canberra)
• Catherine Clutton (Secondary Supervisor, Australian National University)
• Emma Vines (Secondary Supervisor, University of Canberra)
• Cletius Puteho (Primary Supervisor, University of Canberra) 

Google Scholar Profile