Kaat Smets

Kaat Smets is a Reader in Politics in the Department of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London, a position held since 2022. Smets completed a PhD in Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute and subsequently held a postdoctoral research position at the Centre for the Study of Political Change at the University of Siena before joining Royal Holloway in 2013. Research covers political behaviour, electoral participation, and political socialisation, with particular attention to voter turnout across age groups and generations, candidate representation by sex and ethnicity, and the processes through which political attitudes and interests develop during adolescence and young adulthood. More recent work examines future anxiety among young people and its relationship to political attitudes, as well as the role of deliberation in attitude change and ideological awareness.