Research Institute for
Sustainability | at GFZ

Fellow Laura Chazel

Dr. Laura Chazel

Fellow

© priv.

Laura Chazel holds a Ph.D. in political science from Sciences Po Grenoble. Her research focuses on left-wing populist parties. In her PhD (2016-2021), she focused on two movements: Podemos (Spain) and La France insoumise (France) and analysed how they adopted populism as a discourse and as a new theoretical reference. As a post-doctoral researcher at the Jagellonian University (2022-2023), she works on the wish of "radicalization" of (liberal) democracy by four left-wing organizations: La France insoumise, Parti du Travail de Belgique (Belgium), Podemos, Syriza (Greece).

Since 2023, and as a research fellow at RIFS, she works on the "popular environmental" discourse of Die Linke (Germany), La France insoumise and Podemos. The project focuses on the links between left-wing populism and climate change. It aims to understand how left-wing populist parties address environmental issues and the extent to which their environmental narrative is framed in populist terms - i.e. an opposition between those at the bottom" (e.g. the people, the victims of air pollution, pesticides, or junk food) and "those at the top" (e.g. the elite responsible for pollution).

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

  • 2023: Research fellow, Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS), Potsdam
  • 2022-2023: Postdoctoral researcher, Jagellonian University, Krakow
  • 2022-2024: Associate researcher, Sciences Po Grenoble, Pacte, France
  • 2021-2022: Research engineer, Sciences Po Grenoble, France
  • 2019-2021: Temporary lecturer Sciences Po Grenoble, France
  • 2018 : Temporary lecturer Lumière University Lyon 2, France
  • 2016-2019 : Contractual PhD student, Sciences Po Grenoble/Université Complutense de Madrid France/Spain

EDUCATION

  • 2016-2021: PhD in political science, in co-supervision between Sciences Po Grenoble (Laboratoire Pacte) and the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). Thesis title (co-directed by Dorota Dakowska, Christophe Bouillaud, Javier Franzé): "Theory and practice of populism by the radical left: a comparative analysis of Podemos (2014-2020) and La France insoumise (2012-2020)".
  • 2015-2016: Master - Public policies and social change, research option "Comparative government sciences", Sciences Po Grenoble
  • 2013 -2014 : Master - Public affairs, Sciences Po Grenoble

VISITORSHIPS

  • 2020: Visiting PhD Student at the University of Edinburgh, School of Social and Political Science. Under the co-supervision of Luke March and Mathias Thaler
  • 2017-2019: Visiting PhD Student at the University Complutense of Madrid. Co-supervision signed between Sciences Po Grenoble and the UCM. Under the supervision of Javier Franzé.
  • 2017: Visiting PhD Student at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Institut de Ciències Polítiques i Socials (ICPS). Under the co-supervision of Joan Marcet and Astrid Barrio.
  • 2016: Visiting Master Student at the Autonomous University of Madrid. Under the supervision of Santiago Perez-Nievas.

  • Left-wing parties
  • Radical left
  • Environmentalism
  • Populism
  • Political parties
  • Comparative politics
  • Mixed methods

Publications at the RIFS

2023

Journal articles

Publications prior to joining the RIFS

ARTICLES (PEER-REVIEWED)

  • Chazel, Laura, and Vincent Dain. 2022. 'Left-Wing Populism and Nationalism: A Comparative Analysis of the Patriotic Narratives of Podemos and France Insoumise'. Journal for the Study of Radicalism 15 (2): 73-94. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48642382

  • Alexandre, Chloé, Antoine Bristielle, and Laura Chazel. 2021. 'From The Front de Gauche to La France Insoumise: Causes and Consequences of the Conversion of the French Radical Left to Populism'. Partecipazione e Conflitto 14(2): 933-53. https://doi.org/10.1285/I20356609V14I2P933

  • Chazel, Laura, and Guillermo Fernández Vázquez. 2020. 'Podemos, at the Origins of the Internal Conflicts around the "Populist Hypothesis": A Comparison of the Theoretical Production, Public Speeches and Militant Trajectories of Pablo Iglesias and Íñigo Errejón'. European Politics and Society 21(1): 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/23745118.2019.1582256

  • Chazel, Laura. 2019. 'De l'Amérique Latine à Madrid : Podemos et la construction d'un « populisme de gauche »'. Pôle Sud 50 (1): 121-38. https://doi.org/10.3917/psud.050.0121

  • 16 presentations at conferences and congresses in English, French and Spanish, among which: ECPR General Conference (August 2023, August 2022, September 2017), ), Conference of the French Association of Political Science (July 2022), Prague Populism Conference (May 2022), Conference Political Studies Association (March 2021), Conference Scuola Normale Superiore (November 2019), Congress of the SISP (September 2018).

  • 5 presentations in workshops and seminars in French and English, among which: Workshop « Conflicts of sovereignty in the European Union in Crisis (SovEU) », Free University of Bruxelles and Cambridge University (November 2020).