Benjamin Moffitt

Dr Benjamin Moffitt (he/him) is Senior Lecturer in Politics & International Relations in the School of Social Sciences.

His research focuses on contemporary challenges to liberal democracy, and he is one of the world’s foremost international experts on populism, having authored three influential books on the topic: The Global Rise of Populism: Performance, Political Style and Representation (Stanford University Press, 2016); Populism (Polity, 2020); and Political Meritocracy & Populism: Cure or Curse? (Routledge, 2020, with Mark Chou and Octavia Bryant). He also co-edited Populism in Global Perspective: A Performative and Discursive Approach (Routledge, 2021, with Pierre Ostiguy and Francisco Panizza). He has published in many leading journals, including Political Studies, International Journal of Press/Politics, Political Geography, West European Politics, and Government & Opposition.

Benjamin has attracted over $1.5 million AUD in research funding from Australian and international funding bodies. These include:
* an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award ($402,972 AUD) on 'The Visual Politics of Populism'
* an Australian Research Council Discovery Project on 'Populism's Heartlands: Place, Identity, and Localism in Populist Politics' ($312,265 AUD)., on which he is lead CI (with Mark Chou, Australian National University; Rachel Busbridge, Australian Catholic University; and Annika Werner, Southampton University)
* a Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation grant (Sweden) (4.2 million SEK) on 'democratic self-defense' (with Sofia Nasstrom, Anthoula Malkoupolou and Paula Blomqvist, Uppsala University)

His research has been cited over 7,500 times. His work has appeared or been cited in media outlets including The Economist, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Bloomberg News, BBC News, and The Guardian, and in 2018, Benjamin was named one of the Top 5 researchers in the humanities and social sciences in Australia by the Australian Broadcasting Channel.