M. Belen Abdala

CV

I am a PhD candidate at the University of Vienna, under the supervision of Professors Carolina Plescia and Ruth Dassonneville. Additionally, I am a pre-doctoral researcher on the ERC-funded project DeVOTE based at the Department of Government at the University of Vienna. During 2024, I did a research stay at the University of Zurich, Institut für Politikwissenschaft, hosted by Professor Fabrizio Gilardi. I hold a BA and MA in Political Science from Universidad de San Andrés and Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Argentina, respectively.

You can access some snipets of my employment history below.

Employment History

  • Apr. 2021-Present: PhD/Prae Doc Researcher at the DeVOTE project, Department of Government (European Research Council Starting Grant n° 949247).
  • Apr. 2020-March 2021: Research Coordinator at Political Institutions Program, Center for the implementation of public policies for equity and growth (CIPPEC). Led applied research projects and advocacy initiatives related to electoral administration and representation.
  • Dec. 2017-Dec.2020: Researcher of the Task Force on Social Cohesion, Global Governance and the Future of Politics, Think 20 (T20), G20 engagement group. Member of the task force, producing evidence-based policy briefs at the intersection between politics and technology.
  • Oct. 2017 & Oct.2019: Researcher at the Observatorio Electoral Argentino [Argentine Electoral Observatory]. Responsible for generating reports and datasets for dissemination on provincial elections in Argentina.
  • Feb. 2016-March 2020: Senior Research Coordinator at the Executive Direction, CIPPEC. After working as Analyst from February 2016 to June 2017, I was promoted to Coordinator and, in May 2019, Senior Coordinator. I conducted applied research projects on the intersection between electoral administration, turnout and voting behavior.
  • Aug. 2015-Oct.2016: Research Assistant to Gerardo Scherlis (UBA-CONICET), Carlos Freytes (UTDT) and Sara Niedzwieck (University of California), Centro de Investigaciones Políticas [Politics Research Center].
  • May 2015-Dec.2015: Technical Consultant, National Ministry of Health, SUMAR Programme. Monitored and evaluated the public policy implementation.
  • July 2014-Feb.2015: Independent Consultant. Contributed to projects on accountability and state capacity.

Teaching

  • Winter Semester, 2023: Lecturer in Quantitative Methods for Empirical Social Research (BA course – taught in English), University of Vienna.

Additional Trainings

  • July 2023. “Summer School for Women in Political Methodology”. University of Basel.
  • July 2023. “Teaching in Higher Education, Basic Qualification for Junior Staff”. The Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Vienna.
  • May 2022. “The applications of power analysis in the social sciences”. Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences International Workshop.
  • May 2022. “Webinar in English: R Advanced”. Zentraler Informatikdienst, University of Vienna.
  • March 2022. “Webinar in English: Introduction to R”. Zentraler Informatikdienst, University of Vienna.
  • July 2021. “Data Science Summer School”. Hertie School of Governance.
  • Aug. 2020-Oct.2020: Postgraduate course on experimental methods, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella.