Hanna Folsz

Welcome! I am a 5th-year PhD Candidate in Political Science at Stanford University. My research focuses on the challenges and opportunities in countering democratic backsliding. How must different actors engage in politics to help stop backsliding and rebuild democracy? What prevents them from doing so? Guided by these questions, my dissertation examines the campaign strategies and messaging of opposition parties in Hungary’s advanced backsliding and Poland’s recent reversal of democratic erosion. My wider research interests include the determinants and consequences of democratic erosion, populism, media control, and corruption in primarily East-Central Europe and, secondarily, Latin America. My work applies modern causal inference, text analysis, and geospatial techniques.

I grew up in Budapest, Hungary and moved to the UK for the first half of my studies. There, I completed a B.A. in Economics and Politics at Durham University and an MSc in Political Science and Political Economy at the London School of Economics. Beyond English and Hungarian, I speak Polish, Spanish, French, and German.

I co-organize EEPGW, the East European Politics Graduate Workshop. At Stanford, I am a member of PovGov (Poverty, Violence, and Governance Lab) and DPL (Democracy and Polarization Lab).

You can contact me via email at hfolsz@stanford.edu. I always welcome opportunities to talk about Stanford’s Political Science PhD with prospective POC, FLI, and international applicants, so please feel free to email me.