Peter Thisted Dinesen
Professor of Political Science
I am Professor of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen. I have previously worked as a professor at University College London (UCL), where I am currently an Honorary Professor.
I completed my PhD in Political Science at Aarhus University and after that I worked at the University of Southern Denmark.
Although I am a political scientist by education, I am interested in social science writ large. As such, my work intersects with other disciplines including sociology, social psychology, geography, and public health/epidemiology.
​
I have a diverse set of research interests, which you can read more about here.
My primary research has concerned trust in strangers (“generalized social trust”); specifically, the question of how trust is formed, including the potential role of immigration and state institutions. More broadly, I am interested in the effects of immigration for both immigrants and immigrant-receiving societies. I have also researched the consequences of local economic conditions and reactions to violent events.
​
My work has been published in a range of academic social science and public health journals, including American Political Science Review, American Sociological Review, Epidemiology, and Nature Human Behavior, and I have presented it in multiple academic and non-academic fora.
​
My teaching has centered around political behavior, immigration, political geography, and methods among other subjects. I have supervised a number of Ph.D. students and numerous Master’s students, and collaborated with several of them on research projects.
​
My work has been covered in various media channels, including Washington Post, CNN, and various Danish outlets. I am also an occasional speaker at public events and my research on neighborhoods was once the subject of a small art installation at the Danish Architecture Center (DAC).