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. While an MA student at the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, I'll assist with the i4i Project as part of the Democratic Innovations Reseach Unit. 

As a young scholar I'm principally motivated by a concern with how we might create a better world for ourselves and future generations. With a focus on democracy and governance, my research interests include deliberative and participatory democracy; democratic innovations; the politics of the climate-ecological crisis; and self-governance and democracy beyond the state. I favour an interdisciplinary approach grounded in theoretical and empirical political science.

Education: I'm currently 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).