Clareta Treger, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow at the Policy, Elections, and Representation Lab (PEARL)

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, and the Department of Political Science,

University of Toronto

Welcome! 

I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Policy, Elections, and Representation Lab (PEARL) at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, and the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. I received my PhD in Political Science from the Tel Aviv University in 2023. 

I study comparatively the political behavior of citizens and elites using quantitative methods. My core research interest focuses on the determinants of attitudes toward government intervention and policies, with an emphasis on attitudes regarding coercive and paternalistic policies, namely policies that aim to “save citizens from themselves.” I examine this question comparatively and from both the publics and the elite’s perspectives. A second theme I work on is the determinants of perceptions of the government's role and policy preferences. As such my work is at the intersection of political science and public policy. My broader research interests include voting behavior, elite behavior, public policy, representation, and democratic attitudes. I employ public opinion surveys and experimental designs in my work. My research has been published in Regulation & Governance and Public Opinion Quarterly

Currently, I am a co-PI of the European Panel of Local Officials project, which studies the political behavior of municipal representatives in Denmark, France, Italy, Israel, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. We examine affective polarization, preferences toward evidence-based policy, and attitudes toward government paternalism, among other issues related to local governance. 

As a doctoral candidate, I was a researcher at the Israel National Election Studies (INES) project and the ISF Center of Excellence Looking beyond the Crisis of Democracy: Patterns of Representation in Israeli Elections," between 2018-2022, and a predoctoral fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Tel Aviv University (2020-2021).

My CV can be found here.

I hold a B.A. in Philosophy and Middle Eastern History (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Haifa, and an M.A. in Political Science (Magna Cum Laude) from Tel Aviv University. 

When I am not doing academic work, I enjoy reading fiction, practicing yoga, running, and mountain climbing.