Isabel Prioleau

Isabel Prioleau is a junior in Davenport College pursuing a Political Science major and a certificate in French. Her research focuses on comparative European politics, and especially on understanding how contemporary threats to democracy shape and are shaped by dynamics of party competition, welfare state development, and European integration. As a Dahl Scholar, Isabel is working under the guidance of Professor Isabela Mares to situate democratic backsliding in Hungary and Poland within the context of social policy reform and nonprogrammatic electoral competition.

Isabel also has experience researching democratic practices outside of the EU. She worked as a research assistant for Professor Allison Harris’s Judicial Decision Making Project, examining the impact of U.S. courthouse diversity on sentencing outcomes, and for Professor Sarah Bush’s work on election monitoring, specializing in election monitoring reports from developing francophone nations. As a World Fellow Student Liaison, Isabel also benefited from 2023 World Fellow Ann Iyonu’s experience with promoting peaceful resolution of democratic disputes across Africa. Currently, Isabel analyzes French-language media coverage of U.S. foreign policy in Sub-Saharan Africa for the Africa Regional Media Hub of the U.S. Department of State.