About

Selen Ercan is a Professor and Director at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. Her work sits at the intersection of normative theory and empirical political research and examines a wide range of topics including the politics of inclusion and exclusion in multicultural societies, the prospects for public deliberation in the face of value conflicts, and the potential of new forms of political participation and protest movements in reviving democracy.

Selen’s recent book, Mending Democracy. Democratic Repair in Disconnected Times (2020, Oxford University Press, with Hendriks and Boswell) examines how everyday citizens, community groups, and public administrators respond to the crisis of democracy, and help mend it.

Selen has published over 40 articles and book chapters on deliberative democracy, social movements, multiculturalism, and research methods in Social Sciences. Her publications have appeared in various journals including: International Political Science Review, Policy and Politics, Australian Journal of Political Science, Environmental Politics, Social Movement Studies, and Critical Policy Studies. Two of her articles won the best paper prize of the journal, Policy and Politics in 2017 and 2019.

Selen holds a BA in Political Science and Public Administration (METU, Turkey), a MA in Political Science and Sociology (University of Heidelberg, Germany), and a PhD in Political Science (Australian National University, Australia). She has held research positions at the University of Mannheim (MZES), Australian National University; as well as visiting research and teaching positions in the Political Science programs of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil), Nagoya University (Japan) and Stuttgart University (Germany).

Currently, Selen is serving as the co-chair the Participatory Governance Cluster of the global research project Participedia; the co-convener of the European Consortium for Political Research’s Standing Group, Theoretical Perspectives to Policy Analysis; and the associate editor of the interdisciplinary journal, Democratic Theory.

Key Publications

Ercan, S.A., Asenbaum, H., Curato, N. and Mendonça, R.F. (eds.) (2022) Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy (in press) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hendriks, C., Ercan, S.A. and Boswell, J. (2020) Mending Democracy: Democratic Repair in Disconnected Times. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ercan, S.A, Hendriks, C.M, Dryzek J.S. (2019) Public deliberation in an era of communicative plenty. Policy and Politics, 47(1):19-36.
Ercan, S.A. (2017) From polarisation to pluralisation: A deliberative democratic approach to illiberal cultures. International Political Science Review, 38(1):114-27.
Ercan, S.A., Hendriks, C. and Boswell, J. (2017) Studying public deliberation after the systemic turn: The crucial role for interpretive research. Policy and Politics 45(2): 195-212.

Full list of publications available in GoogleScholar

Research grants

Chief Investigator, Democratic Resilience. The Public Sphere and Extremist Attacks (2021-2024). Funded by Australian Research Council Discovery Project ($511,000)
Chief Investigator, Monitoring Deliberative Integrity in Australia (2021-2024). Funded by the Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative. ($202,156)
Partner Investigator, Connecting to Parliament Project (2020-Present). Funded by the Ohio State University Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability and the University of Canberra.
Partner Investigator, Deliberative Democracy on the Face of Democratic Crisis: Contributions, Dilemmas and Ways Forward (2020-2022). Funded by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development Research Grant ($15,000)
Chief Investigator, Realising Democracy Amid Communicative Plenty: A Deliberative Systems Approach (2015-2018). Funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery Project ($369,700)
Chief Investigator, Understanding and Evaluating Deliberative Systems (2015-2017). Funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and Universities Australia ($24,000)

PhD students

Jane Alver (Primary Supervisor)
Sahana Sehgal (Primary Supervisor)
Madeleine Egan (Secondary Supervisor)
Anne Nygaard Jedzini (Secondary Supervisor)
Dianne Phillips (Secondary Supervisor)
Flavia Hanlen (Secondary Supervisor)
Friedel Marquardt (Advisor)
Jane Phuong (Advisor)
Kei Nishiyama (Secondary Supervisor, completed)
Samuel Antero (Secondary Supervisor, completed)
Thaneshwar Bhusal (Advisor, completed)
Catherine Clutton (Secondary Supervisor, completed)
Emma Vines (Secondary Supervisor, completed)
Cletius Puteho (Primary Supervisor, completed)

Teaching

Co-convener and Lecturer, Investing and Explaining Society (2020-present) Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra (undergraduate level)
Convener and Lecturer, Management Dissertation Unit (2019) Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra (postgraduate level)
Convener, Graduate Research Forum (2015-2018) Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra (postgraduate level)
Convener and Lecturer, Theory and Practice of Deliberative Democracy (2015) Graduate School of Law, Nagoya University (undergraduate level)
Convener and Lecturer, Comparative European Politics (2015) Graduate School of Law, Nagoya University (undergraduate level)
Convener and Lecturer, Interpretive Political Research (2014) Department of Political Science, University of Minas Gerais (postgraduate level)

Administration (select list)

Member of Human Research Ethics Committee, University of Canberra, 2017-Present
Member of Equity and Inclusion Working Group, Faculty of Business, Government and Law, University of Canberra, 2021.
Member of Research Board Committee, Faculty of Business, Government and Law, University of Canberra, 2018-2020.
Member of Management Committee, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra, 2012-2016.
Member of Graduate Research Committee, University of Canberra, 2012-2015.
Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Convener, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra, 2012-2015.

Prizes

Teaching Excellence Award (team), University of Canberra (2021)
Dean’s Research Excellence Award (individual), Faculty of Business, Government and Law, University of Canberra (2020)
Ken Young Best Paper Award, awarded by Policy and Politics for the article ‘Public deliberation in an era of communicative plenty’, with Hendriks and Dryzek (2020)
Dean’s Research Excellence Award (team), Faculty of Business, Government and Law, University of Canberra, with Curato, Dryzek, Niemeyer and Pickering (2019)
Ken Young Best Paper Award awarded by Policy and Politics for the article ‘Studying public deliberation after the systemic turn. The crucial role for interpretive research’, with Hendriks and Boswell (2018)

Public Engagement (select list)

Parry, L., Asenbaum, H., Ercan, S.A. (2021) Recipes for democratic participation during the pandemic: From anti-lockdown protest to a participatory system. Agora. 15 March.
Afsahi, A., Beausoleil, E., Dean R., Gagnon, J-P., Ercan, S.A. (2020) Five lessons for democracy from COVID-19 pandemic: An international evaluation of democracy in crisis. Public Seminar. 29 October.
Ercan, S.A. (2019) Reviving democracy: From crisis to innovation. Institute of Development Studies. 18 July.
Ransan-Cooper, H., Ercan, S.A., Duus, S. (2018) Getting to the heart of coal seam gas protests- it’s not just the technical risks. The Conversation. 4 December.
Ercan, S.A. (2017) Sisters in yarn: The rise and rise of small p politics. BroadAgenda. 16 August.
Ercan, S.A. (2014) Dangerous silence: Debating ‘honour killings’ Open Democracy. 1 July.