Dr Lise Herman (She/Her)

Dr Lise Herman is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Exeter. Her research bridges the fields of comparative politics, party studies and normative democratic theory, with a primary focus on theories of democratic partisanship, the discourse and practices of the populist radical right in the Global North and processes of democratic backsliding in both new and old democracies. Since 2021 she has been involved with the HORIZON-funded project REDIRECT, and in this context focuses on the politicisation of democratic innovations, Citizen Assemblies specifically, and their role in representative systems of government. 

Among other peer-reviewed journals, her work has been published in the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Common Market Studies, Government & Opposition and Comparative European Politics. She has also co-edited a volume on radical right politics with James Muldoon: Trumping the Mainstream (2018, Routledge) and in 2023 published her first monograph: Democratic Partisanship: Party Activism in an Age of Democratic Crises (Edinburgh University Press). 

Before joining the University of Exeter in 2018, Lise was a Teaching Fellow in Political Science at Sciences Po in Paris. She holds a PhD in European Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) since 2016, and was awarded the PSA McDougall Prize for Best Thesis in the field of Elections, Electoral Systems and Representation Studies in 2017. 

She currently supervises three PhD students, and welcomes enquiries for doctoral supervision within her areas of expertise. 

Lise is a member of the LGBTQ+ Staff network and is currently PGR Tutor for Politics. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2020 and also one of the department's Mental Health First Aiders, having completed in 2025 the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England 2 Day Course (Level 3).