Gudlaug Olafsdottir

Short presentation

Gudlaug Olafsdottir is a part time researcher at the DPCR, part time postdoc at Stockholm University. Broadly, her research focuses on the political dynamics of semi-democratic regimes, with a particular focus on electoral politics. With a team based at the DPCR and NAI, she is investigating election boycotts and the conditions under which they are likely yield concessions.

Keywords

• democratization
• electoral boycotts
• electoral violence
• political parties
• citizens
• democratic attitudes
• constitution-making
• autocratization
• international organizations

Biography

Gudlaug Olafsdottir is also a post-doctoral researcher at the Stockholm Center on Global Governance, within the Political Science department at Stockholm University. She obtained her PhD in Peace and Conflict Research in November 2024. She is interested in the intersection between policy and research and has also served as a Short-Term Observer within three OSCE Election Observation Missions, done consultancies for International IDEA and the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, and written a policy brief published by Women In International Security on women’s rights in post-conflict settings. She speaks English and Swedish fluently, Icelandic and Spanish well, and knows some basics in French and German.

Research

Her research to date covers topics relating to electoral violence and how it influences democratization, organized student violence, and conflict forecasting, using machine learning techniques to estimate the future risk of armed conflict. Methodologically, she takes a varied approach. Beyond applied statistical modelling, she has conducted qualitative field research in Turkey and Uganda, and contributed to several cross-national quantitative data collection efforts.