Alberto López Ortega

Biography

Alberto López Ortega is an assistant professor in political science at the faculty of social sciences at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He specializes in comparative politics, electoral behavior, representation, and public opinion. His research addresses two interlinked challenges affecting modern-day democracies: identity-based polarization and liberal democratic backsliding. López Ortega develops cutting-edge AI-powered experimental methodologies to study the enduring prejudice against marginalized groups in subtle and concealed forms. His work theorizes and causally identifies how social and political identities sway citizens into supporting (il)liberal policies. López Ortega has pioneered conjoint experimental innovations, culminating in the first-ever visual conjoint experiment to understand how the intersection of LGBTQ+, gender, personality, and ethnicity shapes discriminatory preferences in Western Europe.

At the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), López Ortega aims to strengthen modern democracies through his project by introducing a novel theoretical and methodological framework to explain how social and political identities sway citizens toward supporting (il)liberal policy changes in Europe.

López Ortega earned his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Zurich.

This information is accurate for the time period that the visiting scholar is affiliated with CES.

Affiliations

• Assistant Professor, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• Ramón Areces Fellow & Visiting Scholar 2024-2025, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University