Elias Dinas holds the Swiss Chair in Federalism, Democracy and International Governance (joint SPS/RSCAS chair) – while on leave from the University of Oxford, where he is Associate Professor in Comparative Politics and a Tutorial Fellow at Brasenose College. Elias holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the European University Institute (2010) and his research interests include the dynamics of political socialization, the downstream effects of institutional interventions and the legacy of authoritarian rule on the ideological predispositions of citizens in new democracies.

He has also a keen interest in research methodology. His work has been published, among others, in the American Journal of Political Science, International Organization, the Quarterly Journal of Political Science and Comparative Political Studies, and mentioned in The Economist, the Atlantic and the New York Times.