Eline Severs is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She is an international scholar with expertise on representative democracy, political representation, representation of disadvantaged groups, affective polarisation and democratic inclusion.

Eline holds a PhD degree in Political Science from the University of Antwerp (2012). Before joining the VUB Politics department, she worked as a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and was the scientific coordinator of the Policy Research Centre on Equality Policies ('Steunpunt Gelijkekansen').

Her research interests fall within the field of democratic theory. She is especially interested in democratic representation, the relationships between civil society and democratic governance, political emotions, citizens' conceptions of democracy, and what it means to include historically disadvantaged groups. She has published on these topics in a wide range of scientific journals and edited volumes. 

Eline is a principal investigator in various international and inter-university scientific programmes, including the HORIZON funded project REDIRECT (on the representative disconnect), the HORIZON funded project G-EPIC (on civic education and gender inequalities), the Excellence of Science network NOTLIKEUS (on affective polarisation) and the VUB Strategic Research Programme Evaluating Democratic Governance in Europe (EDGE). Together with Michael Saward (University of Warwick), she co-supervises a Eutopia funded doctoral study on representative claim-making.

She is the chair of the ECPR Standing Group on Political Representation. In addition, she is a member of the editorial board of the scientific journal Politics of the Low Countries and sits on the board of the Belgian Organisation for Political Science (VPW).