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Research agenda VU Polcomm Group · A. López Ortega · 01 / 02

Four interlocking lines on democracy, political communication, and identity politics.

01
Selective liberalism

How liberal majorities deploy liberal-democratic frames to legitimize exclusion: homonationalist discourse, advocacy-as-foreign-imposition framing, nativism dressed in liberal language.

02
LGBTQ+ politics

Race, identity disclosure, and gender in LGBTQ+ candidacies and movements: media coverage, voter response, candidate self-presentation, activist silence.

03
Identity & otherness

Communication mechanisms of out-group construction: moral vs. epistemic attribution in partisan discourse, traitor framing of defectors, media normalization of the radical right.

04
Dating & social cohesion

Intimate-life preferences as a signal of cultural-political backlash; how dating platforms and discourse surface and amplify prejudice against sexual minorities.

Group fit. All experimental, all media- or discourse-facing. Direct overlap: attribution and pre-registration (Mariken, Leon), media normalization of the radical right (Chiara), digital information environments (Silvia).

Active pipeline VU Polcomm Group · A. López Ortega · 02 / 02

Active projects across the four lines, with clear hooks for the group.

01 Selective liberalism
  • Still Instrumentally Liberal — Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte (R&R, APSR)
  • Foreign LGBTQ+ advocacy and backlash (Kuwait) — Yuree Noh
  • Corporate advertising as democratic practice: inclusion, belonging, selective liberalism — Mariken van der Velden, Ana Lopes
  • Homonationalism and military justification — Tony Z. Yang, Eddy Yeung
  • Housing nativism: blame framing and right-wing issue ownership — Pablo Simón
  • Homonationalism and religious affect (conjoint) — Agustín Blanco-Bosco, Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte, Michal Grahn
02 LGBTQ+ politics
  • Queer Eyes for White Guys: how race and queerness shape mass politics — Marcel Roman
  • LGBTQ+ candidate disclosure and electoral consequences
  • TERFs and the vote: who they are and what they support — Agustín Blanco-Bosco
  • Queer activists and silence: self-censorship and strategic silence — Diego Garcia Blum (Harvard Carr Center)
03 Identity & otherness
  • Multiparty attribution: moral vs. epistemic explanations of partisan disagreement — Mariken van der Velden, Leon Chiata (Vienna paper + follow-up)
  • Reality shows and the radical right: media diets and far-right voting — Silvia Majó-Vázquez, Chiara VargiuProposed
  • Andpol: asymmetric devolution and regional identity (Spain / Italy conjoint) — Álvaro Canalejo, Javier Padilla
  • Gray liberals: minority-conservative voters and the right — Martin Naunov
  • Identifying sexual violence: identity cues and partisan interpretation — Leire Rincón
04 Dating & social cohesion
  • The Dating Divide — Cambridge Elements R&R, Lala Muradova
  • Rejection signals and sexual backlash in online dating
  • The Sexuality Gap: re-reading the Gen Z gender gap — Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte (submission target: Sept 2026)
  • Men's problems and the gender gap — Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte (submission target: Sept 2026)
Grants in pipeline

ERC Starting Grant. Two proposals in active drafting (moral panic; political selves). A dedicated co-thinker would help frame the idea.
NWO VENI. Year 1 — actively running. Group input on design and analysis very welcome.

Protected time

Semester-dependent. Summer: broadly flexible. Fall: two recurring slots to be confirmed once the teaching timetable (Media & Politics, Public Opinion) lands.