I am a political sociologist at the University of Amsterdam. I work as a postdoctoral researcher at the Amsterdam Institute for Inequality Studies (AMCIS) and as a lecturer at the Department of Political Science. Previously I was a PhD researcher at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR). In March 2013 I defended my PhD thesis entitled ‘A Populist Zeitgeist? The Impact of Populism on Parties, Media and the Public in Western Europe’ (cum laude). My research focuses on topics such as populism, left-right radicalism, voting behavior, public opinion and democracy. I study the reasons why people vote for populist parties; I assess the consequences of the rise of such parties for other actors in the electoral process; and I look at how social and economic inequalities shape political attitudes and electoral behavior. I teach courses in the Bachelor and Master programs of the Department of Political Science about comparative politics, populism, and research methodology. I also write about these and related topics on blogs and in newspapers and magazines. I am co-founder of the Dutch political science blog Stuk Rood Vlees.