When Your Country Changes Face: Disidentification Amidst National Ideological Shifts and Political Polarization

University of Geneva , 1 or 2 semesters
Recent years have witnessed increasing ideological polarization and socio-political shifts that dramatically reshaped national identities, leading some individuals to feel they no longer belong to groups they once considered their own.
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When Your Country Changes Face: Disidentification Amidst National Ideological Shifts and Political Polarization
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Recent years have witnessed increasing ideological polarization and socio-political shifts that dramatically reshaped national identities, leading some individuals to feel they no longer belong to groups they once considered their own. This phenomenon of national disidentification is characterized by three key indicators: detachment (psychological distancing from one's ingroup), dissatisfaction (negative evaluations of group membership), and perceived dissimilarity (viewing oneself as fundamentally different from other group members). 

While previous research has examined disidentification mostly among marginalized groups, less attention has been given to understanding this process among individuals that used to see themselves as part of mainstream groups, and now perceive their national group as having changed so fundamentally that they question their mere belonging to the group. The proposed research aims to identify the psychological turning points that lead individuals to disidentify from their national group, focusing on how perceptions of dramatic changes in national values, ideology, and norms trigger this process among mainstream group members. 

This research will focus on Switzerland and its three main language regions, but in coordination with studies focusing on Argentine, Hungary, Israel, and the United States. 

  • The project is available in the Fall and Spring semester. 
  • The project runs from 31 October 2025 - 31 July 2029.
  •  Number of placements: 1 per semester. 

 

Prerequisits

  • High level (3rd or 4th year) undergraduate student
  • Minimum GPA 3.4

Important note: 

Students must remain registered as a student at their U.S. or Canadian home institution while participating in the program. The student's home institution must complete the Learning Agreement after acceptance into a project, even if credits will not be transferred to that institution. Transfer of credits is decided by the students' home institution.

Submitting an application, does not guarantee that the student will be offered a placement. The research projects are also available to our domestic degree students; therefore, projects may already be full at the time of applying. Final decision on your admission is solely taken by the Research Supervisor at the host institution.

Faculty Department 

School of Social Sciences / Department of Political Science and International Relations

Founded in 1969, our department is made up of around 60 teachers, including 15 professors. As the largest department of political science in Switzerland, we cover all the main areas in the field, including administration and public policy, political behavior, comparative politics, Swiss politics, international relations and political theory. Strongly rooted in international political science – particularly Anglo-Saxon political science – we seek to understand how society functions at a global and local level, in particular with regard to power, the State, and political institutions and actors.

We offer courses that cover the whole range of subjects associated with contemporary political science: polity (political institutions, political system, State, international system), politics (power, parties, social movements, public opinion, negotiations, conflict), and policies (economic policy, environmental policy, social policy).