Petra Radic is a PhD candidate in Comparative Politics, with a minor in Social Science Methodology, at Central European University (CEU) in Vienna. She holds an MSc in Politics and Communication from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and an MA in Political Science from CEU.
Petra's research focuses on political communication, political psychology, psycholinguistics, and public opinion dynamics. Methodologically, she primarily uses causal inference and computational social science, but engages with both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Her training includes experiments, surveys, social network analysis, and related statistical techniques, as well as case study research, media and content analysis, discourse analysis, interviews, and grounded theory.
Before pursuing her PhD, Petra worked on numerous research projects at leading institutions – including Cambridge University, the Alan Turing Institute, LSE, Stanford University, and more. Her work has examined the evolution of media narratives, audience engagement in hybrid regimes, the effects of political discourse on public attitudes, deliberative democracy in experimental designs, cross-national biases in news reporting during conflicts and crises, the mediation of international criminal law, as well as the role of socialization and political communication on militant democracy.
Her current research integrates computational social science approaches with traditional media effects research to refine how we study political messaging, its influence on political behavior and public opinion, and the broader dynamics of information consumption and dissemination.
At CEU, Petra serves as an instructor for introductory courses in political science and social science statistics, and has been a teaching assistant for a range of methods courses and for classes on comparative politics, democratic backsliding, political communication, and hybrid regimes.
In AY 2024/2025, she received the Academic Achievement Award for doctoral students and the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. She also has forthcoming work in the journal German Politics.