Peer Reviewed Publications
Gender Quota Laws and Women in Cabinets (with Ana Catalano Weeks and Tiffany Barnes). The Journal of Politics, 2026
Do Gender Quotas Increase Political Knowledge? European Journal of Political Research, 2024
Welcome!
I am an Assistant Professor in Political Science in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham, which I joined in September 2026.
My research agenda examines the role of gender in political life, from the incentives of political party elites to include women on their candidate lists to the effects of gendered institutions â gender quota laws â on womenâs political engagement and access to power. My work combines strong quantitative methods skills, including formal modelling, Bayesian methods, and advanced statistical analysis, with an application to gender and politics from a comparative perspective, focusing particularly on Western Europe.
Before moving to Nottingham, I was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Strathclyde. I completed my Ph.D. in Political Science at Florida State University, and a BSc and MSc in Economics at Bocconi University.
Work in Progress
"How Do Personal Assets Condition Parliamentary Behavior?" (with D. Alexiadou, L. Barbabela, M. Pellicer, E. Wegner). Revise and Resubmit at Legislative Studies Quarterly.
"Stai Fuori or Benvenuto?: Immigration and the Italian Far Right" (with C. Reenock). Working Paper.
"Do their Interests Matter? Finance Ministers and Tax Reform in Democracies" (with D. Alexiadou, M. Pellicer, E. Wegner). Working Paper.
"Divergent Paths: the Gender Gap in the Post-politics Revolving Door" (with D. Alexiadou). Working Paper.
"Are women finance ministers different from their male colleagues when they make tax policy? A cross-country comparison of European parliamentary democracies." (with D. Alexiadou). In Progress.
Other Writing
Gender Quota Laws Increase the Share of Women in Cabinets (with Ana Catalano Weeks and Tiffany Barnes). Gender on the Ballot, American Universityâs Women & Politics Institute, 2024
"Misurare la coesione sociale in Italia. Rapporto 2021" (with P. Graziano). Social Cohesion Paper n. 3, 2022 (Measuring Social Cohesion in Italy. 2021 Report)
"Misurare la coesione sociale in Italia" (with P. Graziano). Social Cohesion Paper n. 2, 2018 (Measuring Social Cohesion in Italy)
"Misurare la coesione sociale: una comparazione tra le regioni italiane" (with P. Graziano). Rivista Impresa Sociale, 12(8), 28â36, 2016 (Measuring Social Cohesion: a Comparison between Italian Regions)
"Le âcinque Italieâ della coesione sociale" (with P. Graziano). Altroconsumo (Numero 185), p. 49, 2016 (The âfive Italiesâ of Social Cohesion)
Book Project: Strategic Candidate Selection and Womenâs Representation
How do political parties decide whether to prioritize experience or diversity when selecting candidates? My book project develops and tests a formal model of strategic candidate selection, arguing that institutional incentivesâsuch as electoral systems and gender quotasâsystematically shape how parties balance these competing goals. Existing research typically treats candidate quality as one-dimensional, focusing on experience while overlooking the growing electoral importance of diversity.
To address this gap, I have compiled a novel and comprehensive dataset of Italian national legislative candidates (1994â2022), which includes information on gender, incumbency, list position, and candidatesâ political and professional backgrounds. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines descriptive and statistical analyses, experiments, and elite interviews, I rigorously test the modelâs predictions about how institutional contexts influence list construction. Integrating evidence across methods, the book explains when and why parties privilege experience or diversity in democratic representation.
Instructor of Record
At Florida State University
- Comparative Politics and Policy: Western Europe (2021â2024)
- Introduction to Comparative Politics (2021, 2022)
Teaching Assistant
At Florida State University
- Game Theory I (Gr) (2020, 2021, 2023)
- Media and Politics (UG) (2020, 2021)
- Institutional Approaches to Dictatorship and Democracy (UG) (2020, 2021)
- Political Economy of International Relations (UG) (2022)
At the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
- Game Theory, for John W. Patty (Emory University) (2020, 2021)
- Bayesian Modeling I, for Justin Esarey (Wake Forest University) (2022)
- Bayesian Modeling II, for Alexander Tahk (UWâMadison) (2022)
Get in touch!
CV and Contact
You can find my CV
here.
You can reach me at Giulia.Venturini[AT]nottingham.ac.uk
