Welcome! My name is Nikolaos Frantzeskakis, and I am a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Michigan State University. I study Comparative politics and research methods with a focus on elections and legislatures in Africa.

In my dissertation project, I study accountability and legislative behavior in African parliaments. In particular, I am interested in ways in which MPs in different electoral contexts adapt their behavior to appease party elites and voters respectively.

Data on legislative speeches are scarce for most regions, let alone Africa. To resolve this issue, I utilize advanced computational methods, including transformer models, to create datasets which will allow me to understand the ways in which MPs position themselves towards the executive, represent their home constituents, and prioritize among various policy areas. The compiled dataset covers Ghana, Botswana, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

I completed my undergraduate studies in Greece, where I earned my B.A. in Political Science and Public Administration from the University of Athens in 2015. I graduated from the University of Missouri with an M.A in Political Science in 2018. In 2020, I received an M.A in Political Science as well as a certificate in computational modeling from Michigan State University.

My work has been published in the American Political Science Review, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Electoral Studies, West European Politics, and Oxford University Press.

Feel free to view my CV or contact me.