Danielle Pullan
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dmpullan.bsky.social
Danielle Pullan
@dmpullan.bsky.social
1.8K followers 1.8K following 87 posts
Assistant professor of political science researching abortion policy and gender representation | she/her 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸🇮🇹 | Alum of MPIfG, U Cologne, American U
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dmpullan.bsky.social
My and @paytongannon.bsky.social 's latest publication on abortion access in Italy came out last week as part of the special issue of Interdisciplinary Political Studies! This article grew out of our conversations about the interviews we were each conducting in different regions of Italy. 1/
July 29, 2025 at 1:28 PM
dmpullan.bsky.social
So happy to see this special issue of Interdisciplinary Political Studies on Steps Forward and Backward on Abortion Rights in Advanced Democracies published today, coedited with @gmripamonti.bsky.social and @paytongannon.bsky.social! gendersky reprosky polisky
July 23, 2025 at 3:25 PM
dmpullan.bsky.social
Who doesn't love plots!
Plot of US job applications by type of job, showing tenure track, temporary faculty, postdoc, non-TT, and administrative jobs applied to from August 2024 - April 2025 Plot of US job applications and rejections from August 2024 - April 2025. The peak number of rejections is about half the number of applications. Plot of how many days it took for my applications to be rejected, with the max being 225!
May 9, 2025 at 11:06 AM
dmpullan.bsky.social
I've got a new job! My full thoughts are too long for one post, so see the attached images (with text in the descriptions) for my reflections on the academic job market this year, the choice to jump from Europe to the US, and what's next for me! And of course, there are plots in the reply post ;)
Finally with all of the t's crossed and i's dotted, I'm delighted to share more about my new job! But I also want to put this success in the context of the overall process that it took to get here. It's hard to get a job these days in many fields, but the field I know best is academia. It was a complicated choice to leave Europe for the next step, but a huge part of that choice was the knowledge that there are just so few long-term jobs available in academia. I made the bet that in the US, I could play the numbers game long enough that eventually, I would find a job that was a good fit. You only need one, after all, but with more application possibilities, I staked my hopes on the US instead of Europe. In the end, I applied to 177 jobs. Because I am an incurable nerd, I've made plots. Mostly I was aiming for tenure track jobs, because that was my other big hope in the US: to avoid 4, or 6, or 8, or more years of temporary, precarious positions that seem to be inevitable for European postdocs. The market is just really different, and it was a learning curve to remember how to write like an American again, but also to learn the unwritten rules of a system that I haven't been a part of for the last 9 years. A lot of these jobs just never replied. One place that actually interviewed me months ago finally got around to rejecting me literally yesterday. But this also meant that there were days where, on top of submitting more and more applications and doing my current job and flying back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean to make life work for my family, I was also getting several rejections a day. The biggest lesson I've learned about the academic job market is that, while in some ways, every job is extremely specific and hiring for a very narrow set of qualifications, in other ways, it is entirely impersonal. Rejections are not rejections of who you are as a person, and they don't mean that your work is bad or unimportant. The more stable the position, the more time and resources the university is investing in choosing a good long term candidate. It's hard to fire someone from the tenure track, and so they want to make sure they're making a good choice. What constitutes a "good choice" depends on who is on the committee, who has recently retired or left the university, what students are demanding, what the administration is demanding, and where they imagine the discipline / the department going in the future. It was always a matter of time and sheer numbers before my CV would end up in front of the right people in the right place at the right time for us all to fit together. Starting in August, I will be an assistant professor of political science on the tenure track at Georgia College, a small liberal arts college in the public University System of Georgia south of Atlanta. In the coming weeks, Marco and I are figuring out how to wrap up our life in Germany -- moving out, ending my employment at the University of Cologne, and seeing and celebrating with as many friends as we can. Life in Georgia is going to be really different, but we feel really hopeful about it. I don't know that we'll stay in Georgia forever -- nothing is ever promised -- but it's possible that we could, and that's huge. At the same time, when I say "stay," I don't mean that I won't ever travel -- in fact, I was very clear with my future colleagues that I intend to keep working with my broad international network of colleagues and friends. I will be back. But I will also have a stable home base in a beautiful area that brings so many of the things we're looking to have more of in our lives. This is really exciting, y'all!
May 9, 2025 at 11:06 AM
dmpullan.bsky.social
Hey #polisky, who's in Chicago for #MPSA this week? Start off the conference on a high note with our panel "Abortion Policy & Democracy" at 8am Thursday! Looking forward to great conversation w @annacrawford.bsky.social, @klatt.bsky.social, @paytongannon.bsky.social, & others! tinyurl.com/25uz25gw
Screenshot from the link included in this post detailing the presentations in this panel
April 2, 2025 at 7:21 PM
dmpullan.bsky.social
Save the date: this Friday 14 March at 4pm CET / 11am EDT I'm speaking online to the International Federation of Abortion and Contraception Professionals (FIAPAC) about barriers to abortion care that go beyond legal restrictions. RSVP link in 🧵 #reprosky #gendersky 1/4
March 11, 2025 at 3:02 PM
dmpullan.bsky.social
Leaving Berlin so inspired to work on research projects that are enriched by the discussion at @wzb.bsky.social this week! My Rafstedt and @hannahzagel.bsky.social brought us such a refreshing workshop format where we focused on mutual understanding instead of “performing!” Thanks so much, bis bald!
March 6, 2025 at 8:23 AM
dmpullan.bsky.social
I'm in Berlin this week gathering with interdisciplinary scholars of reproductive policy @ the WZB! Looking forward to learning more about their approaches and the cases they study, & hoping to forge and deepen connections that will lead to more reproductive justice-informed research in the future!
March 4, 2025 at 10:17 AM
dmpullan.bsky.social
Participated in this really fascinating panel on the role of emotions and affect in social research this afternoon @ the Feminism as a Method conference at Scuola Normale Superiore. Little teaser of our tips for interviewing about abortion if you zoom in! Learning so much! @paytongannon.bsky.social
November 14, 2024 at 5:28 PM
dmpullan.bsky.social
Ciao from Firenze! Excited to be visiting the Scuola Normale Superiore this week for a conference on feminism as a research method! I’m presenting new work with @paytongannon.bsky.social & Anna Crawford about techniques for conducting academic interviews about abortion! Can’t wait to meet everyone!
November 13, 2024 at 4:58 PM
dmpullan.bsky.social
Yesterday I successfully defended my PhD on abortion policy! I’m grateful to my advisors (@chitbazoo.bsky.social + others) and colleagues at the University of Cologne, @mpifg.bsky.social, and elsewhere! For now I’m staying in Cologne to teach but am on the market for academic jobs! 👩🏻‍🎓
Danielle with her PhD committee members Danielle with university of Cologne colleagues Danielle with MPIfG colleagues
September 10, 2024 at 5:24 PM
dmpullan.bsky.social
ECPG2024 on a single slide:
July 8, 2024 at 4:38 PM
dmpullan.bsky.social
Because this week wasn’t busy enough, I’m thrilled to have a new publication to share, the first from my PhD dissertation! @paytongannon.bsky.social & I theorize about the role of the Catholic Church & the role of European national identity in the development of abortion policy… 1/ Polisky Gendersky
July 6, 2024 at 2:01 PM
dmpullan.bsky.social
It's officially conference season! Excited to meet lots of interesting people while also sleeping in my own bed this week at EPSA! I'm presenting a new paper with @bcastanho.bsky.social and @jwaeckerle.bsky.social investigating gender + power in parliaments. Come by Saturday morning 10am in MP7-314!
July 4, 2024 at 6:04 AM
dmpullan.bsky.social
I submitted my PhD dissertation today! It really takes a village, and I’m grateful for so many people who have helped me along the way. Hoping to defend later this summer and officially become a doctor, but first, I need a nap 😴👩🏻‍🎓
June 3, 2024 at 3:53 PM
dmpullan.bsky.social
Excited to have @mirya.bsky.social visiting us in Cologne today, talking about how men and women politicians strategically convey emotions in their social media use. In addition to her research, our women working group got a live session of MHAWS career advice! Thanks for coming!

Polisky gendersky
January 30, 2024 at 1:08 PM
dmpullan.bsky.social
See you (virtually) again tomorrow, @unidue.bsky.social! I'm looking forward to joining Dr. Izaskun Zuazu's seminar on feminist political economy to talk about how health and reproduction topics cross over from policy into pressing concerns of political economy, featuring my dissertation research!
January 11, 2024 at 5:26 PM
dmpullan.bsky.social
Tis the season for giving guest lectures! I had a great time this week meeting Dr. Frédéric Strack’s BA students studying Religious Governance at Sciences Po Menton (I wish I’d been in-person at their gorgeous beachfront campus, but alas, zoom!). Loved their curiosity and engagement on this topic!
Screenshot of the first slide of a presentation titled “Religious Governance of Abortion”
November 17, 2023 at 7:39 AM
dmpullan.bsky.social
Excited to visit @emppolitikwiss.bsky.social ‘s MA seminar today to talk about gender stereotypes in politics! We’ll dive into my paper with @bcastanho.bsky.social & @jwaeckerle.bsky.social as an example of how gender presentation in speech affects the length of MPs’ careers.
Polisky gendersky
November 10, 2023 at 8:16 AM
dmpullan.bsky.social
Women MPs speak more masculinely the longer they are in parliament. But when we consider the MP’s party’s stance on women’s rights, women in socially progressive parties become much more masculine with time than women in conservative parties.
September 26, 2023 at 2:24 PM
dmpullan.bsky.social
Using 7.4 million parliamentary speeches from 24 democracies over 35 years, we use machine learning to classify speeches as more feminine or masculine inductively. This allows us to see how an MP’s gendered style changes over time.
September 26, 2023 at 2:23 PM
dmpullan.bsky.social
Excited to share that our (@bcastanho.bsky.social & @jwaeckerle.bsky.social) paper will be out soon in AJPS! We investigate how women MPs adapt to their environment, finding that over time women speak in more masculine ways, particularly women in progressive parties.  s.gwdg.de/ecTNEN
Abstract for the paper titled "Blending in or standing out? Gendered political communication in 24 democracies" that can be read at the link in this post
September 26, 2023 at 2:23 PM