BA Sociology, University of Bucharest, 1996 - 2000

MA Sociology, Central European University, 2000 - 2001

MPhil Sociology and Politics (Polish equivalent), Graduate School for Social Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, 2002 - 2006

PhD Political Science, University College London, 2006 - 2011

I joined Royal Holloway in September 2013 having taught previously at the UCL’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies, the Graduate School for Social Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the University of Flensburg and worked as a researcher at the European Centre for Minority Issues in Germany. 

My interests in the accommodation of ethnic minority groups and the role of the kin-state have developed since 2002. As a student in Budapest during the election campaign in Hungary that year, I witnessed the welcoming euphoria that the Fidesz's Act on Hungarians Living in the Neighbouring Countries had created. I was very fortunate to be able to explore the novelty of the Act in the following years during my doctoral studies at the University College London, and to continue to research kin-state engagement in Europe at the European Centre for Minority Issues and the University of Glasgow after. 

My research reflects a joint interest in international politics and applied political theory and is located in three broad areas. One area of research is identity politics. In particular, my research has focuses on kin-state politics and other trans-sovereign forms it may take. Past and current research grants have facilitated contextual and comparative analyses of the evolution of the kin-state politics of Hungary, Romania, Poland and in Southeast Europe.

The second area is cultural justice. Specifically, I am fascinated by the changes in the relationship between state responsibility and cultural identity generated by the post-1989 legislation on kin-minorities in Europe. My peer-reviewed published outputs discuss the articulation of a kin-state's responsibility in Europe and examine the nature and limits of kin-state engagement. 

Of recent date is my research interest in security. Novel challenges in Europe have renewed the debates over the nature and impact of security considerations on the accommodation of national minorities in inter-state relations. Two forthcoming publications examine the intrumentalisation of kin-state engagement and the subsequent securitisation of ethnic kinship ties in international politics.

Impact and engagement

Since 2017, I have co-convened the KINPOL Observatory on Kin-state Policies, an online research and knowledge exchange platform bringing together more than 50 prominent scholars in the field of kin-state - kin minorities relations from around the world. In the last years, I co-organised and participated in many knowledge exchange events with the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, the Scottish and German Governments, the Government of Kosovo, and other stakeholders, including representatives of national minorities and of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN).  In 2022, I also worked as a research consultant for the Council of Europe's joint programme with the European Union 'Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey II'. 

PR 3910 The Politics of Russia and Eastern Europe (course covenor)

PR 2440 International Relations Theory

PR 1520 Classic Readings in Politics and International Relations