IMPULSE Spotlight

To support early-career researchers following the discontinuation of national starter and stimulation grants, the AISSR launched its own funding scheme: IMPULSE grants.

In this IMPULSE Spotlight series, we highlight the researchers behind these IMPULSE projects: what drives their work, why it matters, and the impact they hope to make.

In this edition, we speak with Dominic Teodorescu on his project, which examines the shifting electoral behaviours in Romania in times of far-right advance.

Why is this research important right now?

“Far-right parties are gaining ground across Europe, and Romania is a particularly striking case”, says Dominic.

He explains that the Romanian far-right coalition (Blocul Suveranist Român) has been steadily gaining momentum since tripling its parliamentary representation in 2024, and succeeded in toppling the Prime Minister Bolojan’s government in early May of this year. Interestingly, preliminary data reveals relatively high far-right support in Roma-concentrated areas, although these parties are often explicitly hostile towards Roma communities. The Roma minority constitute around 10% of the Romanian electorate, but little is known about their voting behaviours.

“Understanding this, at a moment when the far right is surging, is both scientifically urgent and democratically relevant”, the researcher asserts.

What impact do you hope your project will have, for your field and related domains, and for society more broadly?

“Scientifically, I hope to contribute to how scholars think about minority voting - moving beyond the assumption that minorities are apolitical or simply vote “against their interests,” towards a more grounded understanding of political agency under far-right pressure”, the researcher says.

To do this, he will track voting patterns in segregated Roma settlements across Romania by collecting and analysing data from polling stations, and conducting in-depth interviews in Roma communities. By probing into individual voting motivations, the type of issues that are prioritised and how people navigate competing political offers, he aims to develop a clearer understanding of electoral behaviour in these communities. 

He collaborates locally with Dr Ionuț Anghel and Dr Filip Alexandrescu, leading researchers on Roma housing and inequality in Romania.

“For society, I hope the findings will be useful to grassroots activists, Roma organisations and policymakers - offering evidence-based insights into what Roma voters actually care about, rather than relying on stigma or assumptions”, he concludes.

How would you explain your research to a non-expert friend at a dinner party?

“Far-right parties across Europe often win votes by scapegoating minorities. But what happens on the other side of that - how do those minorities actually respond politically?” Dominic begins.

“The focus of my study is the Roma minority in Romania. The data available suggests something rather puzzling: in areas with many Roma residents, support for openly anti-Roma far-right parties seems relatively high, while turnout is low. Why is that? To find out, I will go to these communities and ask people directly about their political choices, what issues matter to them, and how they think about parties that openly discriminate against them.”

Looking Ahead

In the coming two years, Dominic will visit various Roma communities across Romania, collecting data and conducting interviews with locals to gain an understanding of Roma electoral behaviours.  Outcomes from this study will lead to co-authored articles with the above-mentioned scholars, both scientific and popular scientific. Furthermore, the team is planning to welcome a PhD student who will be co-supervised by the above-mentioned scholars from the Romanian Research Institute for Quality of Life (ICCV).

Meet the Researcher

Dominic Teodorescu is assistant professor within the Political and Economic Geographies group (PEG) at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, and previously a Forte postdoc fellow. His current research focuses on the housing exclusion of Roma and Traveller groups in the Netherlands. For this study he was awarded Forte's Int postdoc grant (2020-00070). The project focused on the political technologies of governing mobile homes and how these have been (and still are) negotiated and resisted by Dutch Roma and Travellers.