Dr Thomas Loughran

Research Overview

Dr Thomas Loughran is primarily a quantitative survey researcher whose interests focus on young people's political participation, electoral reform and comparative European values. His published academic work includes the utilisation of advanced quantitative methods analysis including agent based and structural equation modelling techniques. Upon the completion of his PhD at the University of Manchester he worked for Professor Edward Fieldhouse as a Research Associate on the inter-disciplinary Social Complexity of Immigration and Diversity project developing a dynamic agent-based model of voting behaviour. Following appointment to a fixed-term Lecturer position at University of Manchester he worked with Professor Fieldhouse and Professor Hermann Schmitt in designing, administering and analysing the British Election Study Expert Survey. Previous to his appointment as a Lecturer in Comparative Elections at the University of Liverpool, Dr Loughran was Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield on the Leverhulme Trust Lowering the Voting Age in the UK project with Professor Jonathan Tonge (University of Liverpool) and Dr Andy Mycock (University of Huddersfield). In this role he was the primary researcher responsible for designing and analysing two nationally representative surveys of UK public attitudes to the voting age which included a 1000 N survey of 16- and 17-year-olds.

He is currently involved in designing and analysing an expert survey on differentiated integration in the EU with Dr Sandra Kröger (University of Exeter) as part of the EU Horizons 2020 Project Differentiation : Clustering Excellence. He is also currently working on the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust funded project 'Making Votes-at-16 Work in Wales' with Dr Christine Huebner (Nottingham Trent University) and providing academic support to a collaborative peer-led project with the youth work organisation Partnership Young London exploring Young People's Political Identity.