Dr. Aksel Sundström

Biography

Aksel Sundström is a Professor at the University of Gothenburg, specializing in political science with a focus on environmental politics and political representation. He has held positions as a Democracy Fellow at Harvard University and as a visiting researcher at the University of Oxford. Sundström plays a key role in developing datasets for the Quality of Government Institute and oversees the QoG data team as well as an open data platform for corruption and societal indicators. He has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant to fund his project on Female Leaders and African Droughts (Fem-LEAD). His research interests include the examination of political representation, particularly looking at the absence of women and youth in political institutions, as well as the impact of environmental shocks on public opinion and political behavior. Sundström is also involved in the Varieties of Democracy project, which developed the 'Women's Political Empowerment Index'. He has published extensively, including the book "Youth Representation" with Daniel Stockemer, and engages in supervising PhD candidates. His work spans comparative politics and includes extensive field research in South Africa and surrounding areas, analyzing issues such as local bribery and natural resource governance.

Research Interests