Joseph Noonan Photo: Isabella Strindevall © 2024

PUBLISHED: March 13, 2025
UPDATED: March 13, 2025
 

Recipient of the Best Paper Award Presented at SWEPSA's Annual Meeting (in Swedish)

When did you find out that you had won?

JN: "I received the email on Monday afternoon when I was preparing materials for my methods seminar.
 

Was the awarded paper part of your ongoing PhD project, or was it a separate piece of research?

JN: "I plan to use the paper as part of my dissertation. My dissertation focuses on how privacy impacts political conformity—specifically, how and under what circumstances people change their behavior depending on different levels of privacy."
 

I’m so proud of our PhD candidate, Joe Noonan, who recently received SWEPSA’s Best Paper Award.

(Sirus Dehdari, Associate senior lecturer, Stockholm University)

The award is a recognition of your contribution to the research field. What does this award mean to you and your work?

JN: "I think it is a sign that I am on the right track with my research! There is a lot of self-doubt in the research process and so it is very nice to receive such an award."  
 

How is your PhD project progressing?

JN: "It is going well! I am really enjoying the second year of the programme. I have just presented an early draft of a second paper the Political Sociology and Economy seminar at Uppsala University's Department of Government. In this paper I use privacy manipulations in the form of bystanders, family members or other people in the room, during face-to-face surveys to examine whether individuals self-censor when privacy is compromised."
 

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

JN: "The paper I presented truly was made possible by the opportunities offered at the institution. I learned about the history of the secret ballot from a paper assigned early on in the programme and I wrote the first draft of the paper during the applied methods course. During the process I got tons of great comments from others at the department that were key in guiding my research process. It is really great to receive an award that is so directly connected to the first year of my PhD programme."
 

The research of Joseph Noonan

Joseph Noonan's research centers on using quantitative methods to examine political behavior, particularly how social environments influence individual attitudes and actions. He focuses on how political social norms and perceptions shape behavior across different contexts.

Learn more about Joseph Noonan's research

Swedish Political Science Association 

The Swedish Political Science Association ("SWEPSA"), founded in 1970, is the disciplinary organisation for political scientists in Sweden. SWEPSA has both institutional members from the universities and university colleges in Sweden and individual members.
(Source: swepsa.org)