Staff at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
School of Social Sciences Staff
Politics, Philosophy and International Relations Staff
Dr Matthias Dilling
Open Days at Swansea
We can't wait to meet you!
Clearing at Swansea
Parents and Guardians Guide to University
Make an Undergrad Enquiry
Your University
Make a Postgrad Enquiry
English Language Training Services
International Pathways
Why Swansea
Our Student Stories
Sustainability - Get Involved
Swansea University Students' Union
What is Freshers?
Swansea Employability Academy (SEA)
Centre for Academic Success
Welsh on Campus
Find out more about our world-changing research
Research at Swansea
Research with us
Supporting your postgraduate research journey
Find a postgraduate research programme
How to apply for your Postgraduate Research programme
Postgraduate Researcher Developement
Momentum Magazine
Global Challenges Podcast Series
Discover our expertise
Find a research publication
Access our Research Expertise
Research Integrity: Ethics and Governance
Morgan Advanced Studies Institute (MASI)
Our Civic Mission
Swansea Science Festival
Being Human Festival
A World of Welsh Copper
Latest news and research
University Awards and Rankings
Job Opportunities and Working At Swansea
Sustainability at Swansea University
Travel to and from Campus
Social Leagues
Club Sport
Taliesin Create
Egypt Centre
Musical Opportunities
Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Science
Health and Wellbeing Academy
Swansea Academy of Inclusivity
Support & Wellbeing
Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law Staff
School of Management Staff
Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy Staff
Economics Staff
Education and Childhood Studies Staff
Bolger, D
Calder, G
School of Culture and Communication Staff
Lecturer in Politics, Politics, Philosophy and International Relations
JavaScript is required to view this email address.
Office - 031
James Callaghan
Singleton Campus
Available For Postgraduate Supervision
Dr Dilling is a Lecturer in Politics at Swansea and an associate member of Oxford University's Department of Politics and IR. His work centers around a central question in comparative and European politics: Why and how do democratic institutions emerge, evolve, and impact political outcomes? Dr Dilling investigates this question with a focus on political parties in Europe and how these parties form, develop, and respond to a changing environment. Empirically, he has a particular interest in political parties ranging from the center to the far right of the political spectrum and has conducted in-depth archival research in Germany, France, Italy, and Austria.
Dr Dilling's sole- and co-authored work has been published in Political Research Quarterly, Social Science History, German Politics and Society, and in edited volumes on German politics.
Before joining Swansea, Dr Dilling was a Lecturer at Oxford University and Oxford University's Pembroke College and a visiting researcher at Yale University and the University of Vienna. He holds a PhD from Oxford University (Nuffield College). His doctoral thesis is the recipient of the Walter Dean Burnham Award by the American Political Science Association for the best dissertation in the field of Politics and History.
You can find out more about Dr Dilling's work here.
Qualitative and historical methods
Award Highlights
Dr Dilling's teaching covers comparative politics, European politics, political parties and party competition, political sociology, comparative research designs, and qualitative methods. He has taught widely at the undergraduate, MA, and PhD level and supervised dissertations on, among others, the center and far right in Europe, politics and religion, gender and politics, and history and politics.
His teaching emphasizes active learning, empowering students to become self-regulated learners, and integrating subject knowledge with hands-on skills training to boost students' employability and transferrable skills.
Dr Dilling completed a PGCert in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (with distinction) at Oxford University's Center for Teaching and Learning. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In 2018, he was shortlisted for the Outstanding Tutor Award by Oxford University's Student Union.
Walter Dean Burnham Award (2019) by the American Political Science Association for the best dissertation in the field of Politics and History
Dilling, M. (n.d.) Political parties and interest incorporation: A new typology of intra-party groups. Political Studies Review
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62391
Dilling, M. (2022). Kanzlerwahlverein No More?. German Politics and Society, 40(3), 88-109.
https://doi.org/10.3167/gps.2022.400305, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60349
http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/gps.2022.400305
Dilling, M. & Neu, V. (2013). Das Wählerpotential von Rechts- und Linksaußenparteien – Unideologische Protestwahl?. Extremismus in Deutschland, Seite 397 - 434 (pp. 397-434). Nomos, Baden-Baden
https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845244129-397, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60348
Dilling, M. (2016). Die CDU: Repräsentationsgarantien und -defizite einer Volkspartei. Parteien und soziale Ungleichheit (pp. 89-121). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-10390-3_4, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60347
Dilling, M. (2018). Two of the Same Kind? The Rise of the AfD and its Implications for the CDU/CSU. German Politics and Society, 36(1), 84-104.
Dilling, M. (2022). Denominational Conflicts and Party Breakthrough: The Negative Case of the All-German People's Party. Social Science History, 46(3), 505-529.
https://doi.org/10.1017/ssh.2022.1, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60345
Issar, S. & Dilling, M. (2022). Analyzing Failed Institutional Change Attempts. Political Research Quarterly, 75(1), 203-215.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912921989442, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60020
Do Pandemic Prone Health Crises Impact the Democratic Level of Hybrid Regimes? If so, How? [Working Title]. (current)
Other supervisor: Dr Dion Curry
Taught Modules
PO-127 Disinformation, Ideology and Bias: Researching and examining political data
¿The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.¿ - Garry Kasparov This module addresses one of the central challenges of contemporary politics: understanding the nature and role of political information. Our focus is the development of high-level information literacy. Throughout the module, students are shown how to analyse a variety of real-world examples of political information including campaign videos, social media posts, speeches, and news coverage by applying key concepts from the study of political communication. The themes of the module are informational manipulation (disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda); the political analysis of media content (bias and ideology); and psychological modes of media influence (priming, framing, and agenda-setting). As such, the module aims to empower students with an applied understanding of how to navigate the political information environments within which they are embedded. The module also engages students with the social science methods that have been developed to analyse research questions about the nature and impact of today's media environment in the realm of politics. This allows students to develop the conceptual vocabulary and thinking skills necessary to critique the assumptions, methods, and evidential standards that underlie academic analyses of these topics.
PO-127A Disinformation, Ideology and Bias: Researching and examining political data
PO-3121 Parliamentary Studies
Parliamentary Studies is delivered in partnership between the Department of Politics, Philosophy and International Relations and Parliamentary officials from the Westminster Parliament Education Outreach Team. Swansea is one of only twenty-four universities in the UK sanctioned to provide this module, with the support of the Clerks of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. This module aims to equip students with academic and practical knowledge and skills around the UK Parliament, including detailed insights of the workings of Parliament and its relations with other parliamentary institutions. While Parliament remains a key body in the development and safeguarding of democracy in the UK, its functioning has also been subject to debate. It was at the heart of debates over the nature of the relationship between the executive and the legislature, the role of political parties, the reform of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and the theory and practice of parliamentary behavior, representation, and accountability. The UK¿s previous membership of the European Union has also stimulated debates over sovereignty of a pre- and post-Brexit UK. Similarly, devolution has stimulated discussions over Parliament¿s role in making laws across a multi-level polity. This module seeks to engage with these and other issues. Teaching includes tuition both by lecturers in the department and parliamentary staff as well as a field trip to the UK Parliament. The module emphasizes significant and active learning through a combination of traditional lecture-elements with seminar- and small-group activities and exchanges with practitioners like parliamentary clerks.
PO-M93 Analysing Politics and International Relations
The module builds on the discussions and content covered in PO-M32 and aims to introduce students to some of the most prominent methods of data collection and analysis in politics and IR. By discussing selected research methods and drawing on their application in published research, the module seeks to empower students to identify and explain a suitable methodological approach for their MA dissertation, subsequently apply methods in their own research projects, and develop key research skills valuable for a variety of career paths. To do so, the core seminars combine lecture and seminar elements. Following a short lecture-style introduction, the core seminars will focus on active learning activities focused on supporting students in explaining, examining, and evaluating the application of research methods in prominent political science and IR publications. The workshops aim to support students in consolidating their mastery of the material.
POA301 Parliamentary Studies project
The module provides an opportunity for students who have undertaken the module PO-3121 ¿Parliamentary Studies¿ to do further sustained study on one aspect of parliamentary studies. Students will receive academic supervision, feedback, and advice on accessing primary and printed sources from within the Department of Politics, Philosophy, and IR in collaboration with the Houses of Parliament Education Outreach Team. By designing and realizing their own project in parliamentary studies, students will acquire and practice skills that are highly valuable for further studies in the social sciences and a variety of careers. These skills include breaking down a larger project into a series of work steps, planning and organizing work independently, appraising different positions in a debate based on the critical evaluation of evidence, and formulating and defending empirically an answer to important political questions.
Stipendiary Lecturer in Politics, Pembroke College, Oxford University
Departmental Lecturer in Comparative Politics, Department of Politics and IR and Magdalen College, Oxford University
Affiliated Positions
Associate Member, Department of Politics and IR, Oxford University
Dr Dilling is listed on the Expert Register of the PSA German Politics Specialized Group and comments on German and European politics. His comments have appeared, among others, on Deutsche Welle, Euronews, CTV News, BBC online, and The Sidney Morning Herald.
Swansea University is a registered charity, No. 1138342