Marta Fatica

Marta Fatica is a PhD student on the ERC funded NewNews Research Project led by Professor Joost van Spanje.  The NewNews Team is investigating if and how the news media cover new parties, and electoral effects of such coverage in 19 countries since 1950. Marta joined Royal Holloway in July 2021 as a research assistant having previously completed an MSc in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics. In January 2022 she embarked on her PhD project, which is entitled “Female party leadership in Western Europe: An examination of the moderation effect and the causal mechanisms behind it”.

Puay Hoe Chua

Puay Hoe's working title is "Examining the Perceptions of Political Communication Control and Its Impact on Political Legitimacy within a Changing Media Ecology: A Comparative Analysis of Greater China and Singapore." He holds an MSc in International Political Economy and a BA in Communication from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Puay Hoe is supervised by Professor Ben O'Loughlin.

Luke Coughlan

Luke is an ESRC-funded PhD student researching political polarization on social media. His work focuses on audience fragmentation and uncivil discussion on online platforms. He is supervised by the excellent team of Kaat Smets and Sofia Collignon.

Scott Downham

Scott is a Royal Holloway-funded PhD candidate in the Department of Politics and International Relations. His working PhD title is, "How socialisation influences our political communication." He is co-supervised by Professor Ben O'Loughlin and Professor James Sloam at NewPolCom. Follow Scott on Twitter.

Claudia Ferreira

Claudia is a PhD candidate in the Department of History and the Department of Politics and International Relations. She is supervised by Dr Akil Awan and Dr James Sloam. The topic of her research is "Magna Carta for the Digital Generation: the intersection of youth protest and technology." Her research is funded by the Leverhulme trust. In 2015, Royal Holloway was awarded over £1 million from the Trust to support a total of 15 PhD research projects on the theme of Freedom and the Rights of the Individual in the Digital Age. Follow Claudia on Twitter.

Domenico Galimi

Domenico is a PhD candidate in the School of Law and the Department of Politics and International Relations. His working PhD title is, "Evolving Terror: A Critical Analysis of the Evolutionary Nature of Modern Terrorism". He is co-supervised by Dr David La Rooy in the School of Law and Professor Ben O'Loughlin at NewPolCom. Follow Domenico on Twitter.

Gill Griffiths-Jones

Gill is conducting a comparative study of strategic narratives of drones and how those narratives shape public opinion in different countries. The working title of her PhD is, "The Proliferation of Armed Unmanned Vehicles:  Policymaking, Public Opinion and the Media." She is co-supervised by Dr Kaat Smets and Professor Ben O'Loughlin.

Andrew Lo

Andrew began his studies in January 2018, with a thesis entitled, "The Changing Dynamics of Chinese Foreign Policy: Host Diplomacy and its Relations to Global Governance and World Power Structures". Andrew is co-supervised by Dr. Jinghan Zeng and Professor Ben O'Loughlin.  Follow Andrew on Twitter