Skip to main content

PUSH*BACK*LASH

Horizon grant from the European Commission as well as funds from the UKRI

Read more


Profile

Photo of Professor Isabelle Engeli

Professor Isabelle Engeli

Professor of Public Policy

Amory 

I am Professor of Public Policy.

My current research focuses on party competition and policy change on value-loaded issues and the "anti-gender" agenda, the implementation of gender equality policy in the corporate world, and the comparative turn in public policy research.

Prior to joining Exeter, I worked at the University of Bath, the University of Ottawa, and the University of Geneva. I held a Max Weber Fellowship at the European University Institute, Florence and guest professorships at the University of Konstanz and at the University of Paris 2 Panthéon-Assass. I served as Head of the Department of Politics and then Head of the Department of Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology at the University of Exeter, Director of the PhD Program in Politics at the University of Bath and the University of Exeter, as well as Director of the MA Program in Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottowa.

I have worked extensively on the dynamics of value-loaded issues in politics and policy (see Morality Issues and Party Competition in Western Europe, 2012, with Christoffer Green-Pedersen and Lars Thorup Larsen) and on comparison in policy analysis (see Comparative Methods for Public Policy, 2014, with Christine Rothmayr Allison). I was Working Group Leader on the HORIZON 2020 COST ACTION Professionalization and Social Impact of European Political Science (COST 15207) and work on the opportunities and challenges for the internationalisation of European political science.

I currently convene, together with Amy Mazur, the International Research Network on Gender Equality Policy in Practice, which investigates the politics of implementing gender equality in the corporate world in Europe and North America. Gender Equality and Policy Implementation in the Corporate World (2022, with Amy Mazur) analyses the success and pitfalls in the promotion of equality on corporate boards. Our new comparative project investigates the patterns in the design and implementation of equal pay policy.

I am involved in the Horizon Europe PUSH*BACK*LASH project which inquires into the present-day contestation of gender equality issues and policies at both elite and citizen levels in Europe. I lead WP3 to analyse the dynamics in political attention toward gender+ equality issues across space, time, and institutional venues. The WP aims to trace the trajectories of gender+ issues across institutional venues, space, and time; to map the coalitions of actors that drive patterns of issue attention, "anti-equality" strategies and "pro-equality" strategies; and to identify the determinants for successful strategies and counterstrategies to promote gender+ equality across political institutions. 

Christine Rothmayr and I are pursuing our research into comparative practices in public policy and gender equality in the political science profession.

My work appears notably in the European Journal of Political Research, the European Journal of Public Policy, Regulation & Governance, West European Politics, Comparative European Politics, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, and Revue Française de Science Politics. My research has been awarded the 2012 APSA Best Comparative Policy Paper Award and the 2011 Carrie Chapman Catt Prize.

I am Editor-in-Chief of the ECPR flagship journal European Journal of Political Research (with Emiliano Grossman and Sofia Vasilopoulou) and Founding Editor of the European Journal of Politics and Gender (with Karen Celis, Sarah Childs, Elizabeth Evans and Liza Mügge). I am also Founding Editor of the Routledge Series on Gender and Comparative Politics (with Karen Celis) and currently serve on the international advisory board of the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Journal of Public Policy, Policy & Politics, and French Politics.

Last but not least, I believe in service for our profession. I served as Convener of the European Conference of Politics and Gender from 2011 to 2019, as Convener of the ECPR Standing Group in Gender and Politics from 2011 to 2019 and Founding Chair of the Council for European Studies Research Network in Gender and Sexuality Studies, as Vice-President of the International Public Policy Association, as well as on the executive of the International Public Policy Association and on the Advisory Board of the European Politics and Society Section of APSA. 

Connect with me:

Twitter @IsaEngeli

Bluesky bsky.app/profile/isabelleengeli.bsky.social

Linkedin www.linkedin.com/in/isabelle-engeli-102a43aa/

Willing to supervise PhD

I am happy to supervise research (MRes, MPhil, Phd) in the following areas:

  • Policy process, agenda setting, policy design and instruments, policy change, implementation
  • Comparative public policy 
  • Party competition and policy change
  • Gender/LGBT politics and policy; morality and "anti-gender" politics
  • Science, technology and policy
  • Religion, politics and policy in Europe

Research supervision

I am happy to supervise research (MRes, MPhil, Phd) in the following areas: 

  • Policy process, agenda setting, policy design and instruments, policy change, implementation
  • Comparative public policy 
  • Party competition and policy change
  • Gender/LGBT politics and policy; Morality and "anti-gender" politics
  • Science, technology and policy
  • Religion, politics and policy in Europe

 Edit profile