Dr Tereza Capelos

• Ph.D. in Political Psychology and Behavior, Stony Brook University, USA 2002
• M.A. in Political Science, Stony Brook University, USA 1998
• B.A. in Political Communication and Mass Media, University of Athens, Greece 1995

Tereza is is Associate Professor in Political Psychology, Director of the Institute for Conflict Cooperation and Security, Director for the MSc Political Psychology of International Relations.

Tereza joined the University of Birmingham in September 2015, having held previous academic positions at the University of Surrey (UK), Leiden University (Netherlands) and Stony Brook University (USA). She has a PhD in Political Psychology and Behavior from Stony Brook University, and her substantive area of research is the affective, cognitive and motivational determinants of political judgments and decision making. She collects experimental, survey, interview and media content data to study trust assessments of political actors and institutions, minority groups, and policy evaluations in times of tensions and crisis. She is currently involved in research projects investigating the affective and value determinants of political radicalization, and the role of trust and emotions of fear and anger on political tolerance. She also studies institutional and political reputations, organizational accountability and blame attributions, and civic engagement and media use.

Dr. Capelos is not teaching during the 2015-16 academic year.

At her previous posts, she taught postgraduate and undergraduate classes in Political Psychology, Research Theories and Methods, Political Communication, British Politics and Public Opinion, Statistics, and Econometrics.

Dr. Capelos is currently supervising PhD research in the following areas:

• Human rights perceptions and political tolerance (Tom Stocks, University of Birmingham)
• Authenticity and Secularization as determinants of Political Attitudes in Turkey (Stavroula Chrona, University of Surrey)
• The financial crisis and national decision-making in Greece and Ireland (Julie Garman Kolokotsa, University of Surrey)

She welcomes potential PhD students who are interested in employing quantitative and qualitative methodologies and data (experimental design, survey methodology, media content analysis, interviews) to conduct research in the following areas:

• Political emotions in international crises and political decision making
• Political accountability and trust
• Reputation management in institutional impression formation
• Political radicalization, engagement and political values
• Political tolerance and perceptions of minority groups

Specific Research interests

• Affective and cognitive components of reputations of political institutions and leaders as determinants of political accountability
• Emotions as determinants of policy evaluations in times of tensions and crisis.
• Affective and value determinants of political radicalization
• Blame attribution, political trust, cooperation and conflict
• Political tolerance and political emotions
• Civic engagement and media use

Current collaborative projects

• Cognitive and affective components of institutional reputations of regulatory agencies and multi-national corporations in social responsibility programs (with Dr Colin Provost, UCL)
• Political values and radicalization in Greece during the financial crisis (with Dr Alexia Katsanidou, Gesis)
• Political tolerance, perceptions of Muslim minorities and their rights (with Dr. Harriet Tenenbaum, University of Surrey)
• Individual and Collective Emotions in Austerity Politics (with Dr. Theofanis Exadaktylos, University of Surrey)
• Values and political orientations of India’s middle class (with Ipshita Basu, Westminster University)
• Political learning and TV dramas

• President Elect of the International Society of Political Psychology
• Standing Group Chair and director for the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Political Psychology Standing Group.
• Senior Editor for Political Psychology, Oxford Research Encyclopedia in Politics, Oxford University Press.
• Co-Editor for Palgrave Series in Political Psychology (2012 – ongoing).
• Co-Editor for Science and Society (2012- ongoing).
• Associate Editor for Political Psychology (2012 – ongoing).
• Associate Editor for the Research and Politics (2012- ongoing)
• Served as Director of the International Society of Political Psychology, Summer Academy from 2010 to 2015.