Academic Staff: Maria Grasso

Dr Maria Teresa Grasso, BA (Hons), M Sc, D Phil (Oxford)

Lecturer in Politics (Quantitative Methods)

Telephone: +44 (0)114 222 1702
Fax: +44 (0) 114 222 1717
Room: G.52 Elmfield

Email: m.grasso@sheffield.ac.uk

Profile

Dr. Maria Grasso joined the Department as a Lecturer in September 2011. She completed her doctoral thesis on generational differences in institutional and extra-institutional political participation in Western Europe (Nuffield College, University of Oxford) in 2010. She holds a BA (Hons) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (2005) and an M Sc in Sociology with Distinction (2006) from the University of Oxford. In 2005, she was awarded an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) “1+3” Studentship Award to fully fund her M Sc and D Phil studies at the University of Oxford.

Before joining the Department, Dr. Grasso was a Stipendiary Lecturer in Politics at St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford (2008-2011) and a Research Fellow on the ESRC-funded collaborative European survey project, Caught in the Act of Protest: Contextualizing Contestation (www.protestsurvey.eu) at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Southampton (2009-2011). Previously, she was a Retained Lecturer in Politics at Pembroke College, University of Oxford and a Non-stipendiary Lecturer in Sociology at Hertford College, University of Oxford. She has been teaching Undergraduate politics and sociology since 2007.

Dr. Grasso’s main research interests are in political sociology, and in particular, the shift from traditional means of political participation, centred around political parties, electoral politics, and left-right conflict, to more diffuse and irregular forms of involvement such as demonstrations and consumer boycotts. Her academic work deals primarily with quantitative research and statistical analysis of cross-national surveys on political attitudes and behaviour.

Teaching

Dr. Grasso’s research interests inform her teaching at both Undergraduate and MA level. She is currently the Module Leader on four courses: The MA course POL6015 Researching Socio-Political Change. This module focuses on the fundamental principles of empirical political research using data analysis. The module aims to provide the basic skills to engage in independent quantitative research for the thesis: how to develop an empirical research design, find adequate data sources, conduct data analysis, interpret results, and discuss their implications. The MA course POL6160 Research Methods in Politics and International Relations. This module enables students to assess the role of qualitative and quantitative methods in politics and international relations research. It looks at published empirical studies that have used a range of methods in politics and IR, to assess how methods, evidence, and interpretation are used. The Level 3 course POL3104 Dissertation in Political Analysis (Quantitative Methods). This module involves supervised research on an agreed research topic. Students are required to attend quantitative research methods workshops and general dissertation workshops, undertake individual research, and are assessed on the basis of a 10,000 word dissertation applying quantitative methods. The Level 3 course POL3127 Protest, Participation and Social Change (further details coming soon).

Dr Maria Grasso discusses the ways in which political participation is changing from conventional methods to new forms such as protest and demonstration. More Politics Brought to Life videos

Dr. Grasso also contributes to teaching:

• The Level 2 course POL229 Political Analysis: Research Design and Data Analysis (Module Leader: Dr. Alistair McMillan). This module provides students with an introduction to research design and methods for analysing political phenomena. It encourages students to reflect on how they conceptualise, design and analyse the political world. This involves exploring the relationship between theory and empirical political research, with a focus on operationalisation and measurement in political science. The module explores various techniques used in the analysis of empirical political research, with particular emphasis on the collection and analysis of quantitative data.
• The Level 1 course POL113 Introduction to Political Analysis (Module Leader: Professor Matt Flinders). This module provides students with an introduction to the analysis of political phenomena. The primary focus is conceptual, dealing with basic categories, which are central to the understanding of modern political ideas and institutions. Lectures and seminars focus on the use of specific concepts - such as liberty or power - allowing students to familiarise themselves with contrasting ways they can be defined and integrated into political argument. The aim is to develop a critical self-awareness of the terms through which we reason about politics.
• The Level 3 course POL3008 Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict Project (Module Leader: Dr. Katharine Adeney). This module involves supervised research on an agreed topic arising out of work done on the taught module POL3007 Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict. Students will meet their tutor individually, undertake individual research and be assessed on the basis of a 7,000 word essay.

Recent Invited Panel Discussions, Research Workshop, and Conference Presentations

• Generational differences in institutional and extra-institutional political participation in Western Europe, 1981-2006. Beyond Political Socialization: New Approaches in Age, Period, Cohort Analysis, Nuffield College, University of Oxford, 16-17 March, 2012
• Civil disobedience or violent criminality? Panel on protest at the Battle of Ideas Festival, Royal College of Art, London, 29-30 October, 2011
• Online communities: cyber-village or anti-social network? Panel on new social media and political action at the Battle of Ideas Festival, Royal College of Art, London, 29-30 October, 2011
• Explaining cross-national differences in cohort effects on protest participation in Western Europe, European Science Foundation (ESF) HumVIB Final Conference: Understanding European Diversity: Cross-National Analysis of Human Values, Attitudes and Behaviour, Berlin, 8-10 September, 2011
• The 2010 UK mobilisations against rising university fees and education spending cuts: A new avenue for young people’s political engagement? 6th ECPR General Conference, Reykjavik, 25-27 August, 2011
• How do social movements use social media? A participatory study of the use of Facebook by opponents of UK government cuts, Alternative Futures Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University, April 2011
• Multi-level modelling results. From issue attention cycle to carbon consensus: British newspaper coverage of climate change 1997-2009, C2G2 Research Seminars, University of Southampton, November 2010
• An increasingly disengaged citizenry? Period effects on ‘conventional’ and ‘unconventional’ political participation in Western Europe, 1981-2006, International Sociological Association (ISA), The Possibility of Sociology in the Era of Globalization, Shonan Kokusai Village, Hayama, Japan, October 2009

Professional Activities and Administrative Roles

Dr. Grasso is the Department's ECPR Official Representative. She is a reviewer for a number of journals including Political Science (since 2012), British Journal of Political Science (since 2011), Mobilization (since 2010), Sociological Quarterly (since 2010), and Social Forces (since 2009). She coordinates the Department’s Governance and Participation Research Workshops and sits on the Department’s Research Committee. She is also the Department’s Website Officer, advising on content. Please email her with suggestions.

Current Research and Working Papers

• The future of religious, class and political identities in Britain
• The end of the party? Generational differences in party membership in Western Europe
• Political participation in Western Europe: Declining ‘conventional’ participation, rising ‘unconventional’ participation?
• The socio-political effects of recession and unemployment on popular protest participation
• The aggregate-level effects of participation in social movement activities: Does protest participation lead to unconventional life-course choices? (with M. Giugni)
• Normative orientations of the global justice movement: A pilot study (with C. Armstrong and C. Saunders), Discussion Papers in Citizenship Globalisation and Governance, Centre for Citizenship, Globalisation and Governance, University of Southampton. (2010)
• The differential impact of education on young people’s political activism: Comparing Italy and the United Kingdom, Sociology Working Papers 2009-01, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford. (2009)

Key Publications

• Explaining Differential Protest Participation: Novices, Returners, Repeaters and Stalwarts. Mobilization. (in press, 2012) (with C. Saunders et al.)
• Survey of public attitudes towards conduct in public life 2010. Report of statistical findings from the 2010 survey for the Committee on Standards in Public Life. Government Report. (2011)

PhD Supervision

Dr. Grasso is currently second supervisor for two PhD research projects on:

• Party political ideologies and party modernisation
• Political behaviour in Turkey

She is keen to supervise promising research students in a range of areas, including:

• Radicalism, social movements and protest
• Political participation and disengagement
• Young people's political participation
• Political socialisation and political generations
• Social/political attitudes and value change
• Cross-national research
• Survey research and quantitative methods
• Political sociology of industrial democracies

N. B. This is not intended as an exhaustive list and there may be opportunities for supervision on related topics. Please e-mail Dr. Grasso if you would like to discuss potential PhD supervision.