Damien J du Preez

Research: As a Research Coordinator with the Centre for Research on Democracy (CREDO), I co-chair the Citizens’ Assembly Working Group, a collaborative project exploring the potential of citizens’ assemblies for South African democracy. As an MA student at the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, I will assist with the European i4i Project under Prof. Dr. Brigitte Geissel. 

As a young scholar I am principally motivated by a concern with how we might create a better world for ourselves and future generations. My research interests include deliberative and participatory democracy; democratic innovations; the nexus between democracy and the climate-ecological crisis; and self-governance and democracy beyond the state. I favour an interdisciplinary approach grounded in political science, enjoying both theoretical and empirical work. 

Education: I am a Master's student at the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt (Germany), studying towards an MA in Comparative Democracy. I hold a BA in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from Stellenbosch University (South Africa), which included a six-month academic exchange at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (the Netherlands).