Derek Beach is a professor of political science at Aarhus University, born in New York in 1970 and trained at the London School of Economics before completing his PhD at the University of Southern Denmark in 2003. His research covers European integration, referendum voting behaviour and US presidential politics, and he is internationally recognised for developing the qualitative research method known as process tracing, the subject of his widely cited books published by University of Michigan Press. He has long been a regular lecturer at the Danish Folkeuniversitet, bringing academic research to general audiences.
Derek Beach appears as a speaker at the PARK knowledge festival in Universitetsparken in Aarhus on August 22-23, 2026.
Beach and colleagues published the article 'Elucidating the Social - Developing Social Process Tracing as an Integrative Framework' in Sociological Methods & Research.
Beach and Smeets published an article on European politics in European Journal of Political Research.
A debate on the EU's new trade agreements and their impact on European security, climate, and democracy, featuring experts from Aarhus University and DEO.
Political science professor Derek Beach from Aarhus University analyzes American politics and explains why many Americans support Trump and Republicans despite ongoing challenges.