CV
Personal Details
Name: Anna Pless (born Kulkova)
Date of birth: November 10, 1990
Place of residence: Leuven, Belgium
Research positions
Postdoctoral researcher: Chair of Sociology specializing in Quantitative Analyzes of Social Change, Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany), 2021 - 2023.
Project: "Does Europe grow together? Convergence and divergence of political attitudes in Europe"
After Europe steadily converged since WW2, the last decade has revealed several serious challenges for a continuing European integration. In light of these developments, this project examines potential polarization and fragmentation trends in public opinion in Europe. Attitudes towards four key political issues are at the center of the investigation: social inequality, gender relations, migration/cultural diversity and European integration.
Polarization- and fragmentation trends are examined from three analytical perspectives: First, we examine country differences in issue alignments, i.e. how attitudes towards the key political issues are entangled. Second, we compare distributions in political attitudes and their changes over the last decades between and within European countries. Third, we compare the structure of attitudes within individuals to identify political belief systems. The empirical basis for addressing these questions are representative cross-national surveys with repeated cross-sections.
Education
PhD: KU Leuven, Belgium, 2023, Sociology of Culture, Religion, and Politics. Doctoral thesis: |A Secularization of Cultural Politics? Changing Patterns of Cultural-Political Polarization and Voting Behavior in Western Europe, 1981-2017"
Postgraduate student: National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow (HSE), 2014-2017, Political Science.
MA: HSE, 2012-2014, Political Science, cum laude.
BA: HSE, 2008-2012, Political Science, cum laude.
Research Visits and Internships
Visiting student: Princeton University, USA, April 2016
Research and Teaching Experience
2024 Instructor in data analysis: "Data analysis 1" (regression, EFA and PCA in R) and "Data analysis 2" (mediation, moderation, CFA, panel data), Bachelor in Social Sciences, KU Leuven.
2020 Guest Lecturer in “Political Behavior”, School of Political Science, HSE.
2016 - 2020 Coordinator of Tilburg-Leuven-Rotterdam joint seminars "Culture, Politics & Society"
2014 – 2017 Junior Research Fellow: Laboratory for Political Studies, HSE.
2016 Lecturer in “Political Behavior”, School of Political Science, HSE.
2013 – 2015 Teaching Assistant in “Political Analysis”, School of Political Science, HSE.
2013 – 2014 Research Assistant: Laboratory for Political Studies, HSE.
Additional Education
2019 Regression with ordinal variables (FLAMES, February 2019, University of Antwerpen)
2018 Essential tools for R (FLAMES, December 2018, KU Leuven)
Missing data analysis (FLAMES, April 2018, University of Ghent)
2017 Time series analysis (FLAMES, September 2017, University of Antwerpen)
Multilevel Analysis (Master in Statistics, KU Leuven)
2014 Categorical Data Analysis (LCSR Summer School, June-July 2014, HSE)
Skills
Languages: English – advanced (TOEFL, 2014); Dutch – B2 (ITNA, 2020). French – A2.
PC: STATA, R, SPSS, Mplus, MLwiN.