Welcome to my website!
 

My name is Estelle E. Brun and I am a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Boston University (BU). I specialize in Comparative Politics and Political Theory and my research focuses on the interactions between political mobilization and realms of national identity in democratic regimes. My dissertation investigates how institutional memory shapes voting behavior in the United States and France. I intend to conduct fieldwork in South Carolina and Paris in 2025 and 2026. 

 

In addition to the politics of memory, I study politics in nominally non-political spaces and specifically in the relationship between political behavior and popular culture. I am working on several side projects which focus on the Eurovision Song Contest.

 

Overall, I am interested in how national defeats and victories, in wars and World Cup finals, shape not only political behavior but also the broader social contract between citizens and the state.

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In addition to my research, I have been a teaching fellow for political theory and comparative politics courses at BU as well as the instructor of record for the Introduction to Comparative Politics course in the summer of 2025.

 

Prior to joining Boston University, I obtained a Master of Science in Comparative Politics with Distinction from the London School of Economics (LSE) and worked for two years at the Institut de relations internationales et stratégiques (IRIS), a Paris-based think tank.