About
Dr Emilia Belknap is a Research Fellow in Politics and International Relations at the University of Southampton. Her research sits within comparative political behaviour and institutions, with a particular focus on how identity, public opinion, and institutional structures shape democratic legitimacy and political outcomes.
Her doctoral research, titled ‘Sex, gender and constitutional attitudes: voting behaviour in the Scottish independence referendum’, examined gendered differences in constitutional preferences using a mixed-methods approach combining survey analysis with interviews and focus groups. More broadly, her work explores how individuals understand and engage with political authority, particularly in contexts of constitutional change and multi-level governance.
Her research also engages with contested policy issues, gender politics, and the interaction between political actors, institutions, and civil society, including work on feminist institutional responses and anti-gender movements in the UK. She has published in journals including Parliamentary Affairs and British Politics, and her work combines qualitative and quantitative methods, with particular expertise in interview-based and mixed-methods research design.