My CV

Academic positions

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2026-present)
University of Reading, Reading, UK.

Education

Ph.D. in Political Science (2026)
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.
Distinction: Cum Laude, International Doctorate Mention.
Thesis Project Title: “Crisis, Competition, and Campaigning: Citizens and Parties in 21st Century Politics”.
Supervisor: Dr. Toni Rodon.
Committee Members: Dr. Katjana Gattermann (UvA), Dr. Sofia Vasilopoulou (King’s College London), and Dr. Albert Falcó-Gimeno (UB).

Postgraduate Degree in Data Analysis (2021-2022)
Universitat de Barcelona (Spain).

MSc in Political Analysis and Institutional Assessment (2020-2021)
Universitat de Barcelona (Spain).
Thesis Title: “The entry of Vox in the Spanish political institutions and its effect on citizens’ attitudes towards immigration”.

BA in Political Science and Administration (2016-2020)
Universitat de Girona (Spain).

Research

Publications

Rodríguez, Irene (2026). Legitimising prejudice? The impact of radical right party presence on anti-immigration attitude expression, Electoral Studies, 101.

Herbig, Lisa, Asli Unan, Theresa Kuhn, Irene Rodríguez, Toni Rodon, & Heike Klüver (2025). Closed borders, closed minds? COVID-related border closures, EU support, and hostility towards immigrants, European Journal of Political Research, 64(4), pp. 1923-1944.

Rodríguez, Irene, Toni Rodon, Asli Unan, Lisa Herbig, Heike Klüver, & Theresa Kuhn (2025). Benchmarking pandemic response: How the UK’s Vaccine Rollout Impacted Popular support for the EU, British Journal of Political Science, 55(e35), pp. 1-16.

Rodon, Toni & Irene Rodríguez (2024). A bitter victory and a sweet defeat: the July 2023 Spanish general election, South European Society and Politics, 28(3), pp. 335-357.

Under Review

Rodríguez, Irene, Toni Rodon, & Zachary P. Dickson. A coordinated solution for a coordination problem? A Civic Education experiment on climate change and attitudes towards the European Union.

In progress

Rodríguez, Irene. Digital battlegrounds: How political parties tailor advertising to electoral contexts.

Rodríguez, Irene. One seat ahead: The impact of narrow electoral wins on political parties’ digital ad strategy.

Participation in projects

DIVIDED Project
- Funded by the UKRI
- Role: Postodctoral research fellow
- Duration: 2026-present
- Principal Investigator: Dr. Miriam Sorace (University of Reading)
- Website: https://divided-inequality-polarization.github.io

COVIDEU Project
- VolkswagenStiftung Research Project
- Role: PhD Researcher
- Duration: 2022-2025
- Principal Investigators: Dr. Heike Klüver (HU Berlin), Dr. Toni Rodon (UPF), Dr. Theresa Kuhn (LSE), Dr. Michal Krawczyk
- Website: www.covideu.info

Unraveling reference points in the evaluation of regional governance indicators
- Institut d’Estudis d’Autogovern
- Role: Junior Researcher
- Duration: 2026-2027
- Principal Investigator: Dr. Jordi Mas (UOC)

Workshops

RECSM Winter Methods School: From Prompt to Pipeline
- February 2026
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra
- Instructor: Marco Steenbergen (Universität Zurich)
- Course certificate

I, II, III & IV COVIDEU Workshop: Project Workshop
- 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
- University of Amsterdam, UPF, London School of Economics, HU Berlin

Using AI for Text Analysis: Online course
Febrary 2025
- InStats
- Instructor: Seraphine Maerz
- Course certificate

RECSM Summer Methods School: Big Data: Computational Analysis of Text
- July 2022
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra
- Instructor: Carlos Arcila (Universidad de Salamanca)
- Course certificate

RECSM Summer Methods School: Multilevel I: Introduction to Multilevel Models
- July 2022
- Universitat Pompeu Fabray
- Instructors: Carla Rampichini and Leonardo Grilli (Università di Firenze)
- Course certificate

VI & X PhD Workshop on Empirical Political Science
- June 2022, June 2024
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Universitat de Barcelona

PhD Programme in Political and Social Sciences: Doctoral Workshop
- March 2022, March 2023, March 2024
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra

UPF PhD Program: Working with Concepts in the Social Sciences
- February 2022
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra
- Instructor: Frederic Schaffer (University of Massachussets)
- Course certificate

Professional service

Journal Media Editor
- Political Science Research and Methods (PSRM)

Reviewer
- Journals: Electoral Studies; Territory, Politics, Governance; Social Sciences & Humanities; Political Research Exchange

Research stays

Research Stay at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- Dynamics Research Training Group (RTG)
- Under the supervision of Dr. Heike Klüver
- October–December 2025

Invited Talks and Presentations

Dynamics Research Training Group Seminar, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- November 2025
- Presented: One seat ahead: The impact of narrow electoral wins on political parties’ digital ad strategy.

Barcelona Program for Interdisciplinary Studies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
- January 2025
- Society and Politics in Contemporary Spain: the digital advertising strategies of political parties.

Universitat de l’Experiència, Universitat de Barcelona
- November 2021
- Seminar on voter behavior and radical right parties.

Teaching

A full list of courses I’ve taught at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Universitat Oberta de Catalunya is on the Teaching page.

Dissemination/Public engagement/Media contributions

Rodríguez, I. (2025). Institutional Report on the `Soc Diputat / Soc Diputada’ Workshop (Parliament of Catalunya).
- Mixed-methods text analysis of students’ policy proposals for the Parliament of Catalonia (programme “Soc diputat/da”), combining qualitative coding and statistical textual analysis to identify thematic patterns, ideological dimensions, and differences across educational and social groups.

Rodon, T., & Rodríguez, I. (2023, October 1). Quants vots ha perdut l’independentisme des de l’1-O? Ara. Retrieved from https://www.ara.cat/politica/quants-vots-perdut-l-independentisme-des-l-1_1_4815730.html

Conferences

European Political Science Society, June 2026.
Presenting: Rodríguez, I. One seat ahead: The impact of narrow electoral wins on political parties’ digital ad strategy. [Working paper]

European Graduate Network Conference, March 2026.
Presenting: Rodríguez, I. “One seat ahead: The impact of narrow electoral wins on political parties’ digital ad strategy. [Working paper]

European Political Science Association, June 2025.
Presenting: Rodríguez, I. Digital battlegrounds: How political parties tailor advertising to electoral contexts. [Working paper]

European Political Science Association, July 2024.
Presenting: Rodríguez, I., & Rodon, T. A coordinated solution for a coordinated problem? A Civic Education experiment on climate change and attitudes towards the European Union as part of the COVIDEU Project. [Working paper]

European Political Science Association, June 2023.
Presenting: Rodríguez, I., Unan, A., Rodon, T., Klüver, H., & Kuhn, T. Benchmarking pandemic response: How the UK’s Vaccine Rollout Impacted Popular support for the EU as part of the COVIDEU Project and Rodríguez, I. The dangers of legitimation: how the presence of an RRP in parliament can increase antiimmigration attitudes. [Working paper]

Midwest Political Science Association, April 2023.
Presenting: Rodríguez, I., Unan, A., Rodon, T., Klüver, H., & Kuhn, T. Benchmarking pandemic response: How the UK’s Vaccine Rollout Impacted Popular support for the EU as part of the COVIDEU Project.

Awards and Honors

Mención Especial, Premio Juan Linz para Tesis Doctorales en Ciencia Política 2025 (Special Mention, Juan Linz Award for Doctoral Theses in Political Science 2025)
- Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales (CEPC)
- Spain

Beca Santander | Ayuda Económica Para Personal Investigador Predoctoral 2025 (Santander Grant | Financial Aid for Pre-Doctoral Researchers 2025)
- Banco Santander
- €2,000

PhD Programme in Political and Social Sciences Doctoral Workshop - Best Poster Award
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra
- 2nd place
- Check out my poster

Skills/Languages

Programming: R (Expert in Data Analysis for Political Analysis and Public Administration)
Markup: Markdown/RMarkdown, LaTeX, Quarto
Natural: Spanish (native), Catalan (native), English (proficient), German (intermediate)