Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - DYNAMICS

Violeta Haas is a PhD candidate at the Research Training Group "The Dynamics of Demography, Democratic Processes and Public Policy" (DYNAMICS), jointly organised by the Hertie School and the Department of Social Sciences at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. From January to May 2023, I visited The Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice and the Department of Politics at Princeton University.

She earned her bachelor´s and master´s degrees in Social Sciences at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. During her studies, she worked as a research, teaching and editorial assistant at the Chair of Comparative Political Behavior, the Chair of Empirical Social Research, the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), the Cluster of Excellence "Contestations of the Liberal Script" (SCRIPTS) and the Journal of Politics (JOP).

Violeta´s research interests connect insights from comparative politics and political behavior, engaging with work on sexuality and gender, social norms, electoral studies, party competition, and social movements. Methodologically, she specializes on strategies for causal identification, quantitative approaches to the analysis of text corpora, and experiments. In her dissertation project, she concentrates on unraveling the ways in which legal changes in the rights of marginalized groups influence the opinions and behaviors of the broader population. Specifically, she investigates how changes in LGBTQ+ rights impact various aspects of political behavior, including shifts in voting patterns, the formation and dismantling of prejudiced attitudes, and the incidence of hate crimes.

"LGBTQ+ Rights and Policy Feedback: How Changes in the Rights of Marginalized Groups Affect Mass Public Opinion and Behavior"