PhD Students

Renira is a political economy doctoral student. She has a MSc in political economy from BI Norwegian School of Management and a BA in political science and economics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology with an exchange semester at the University of California, Berkeley. Research interests include innovation and performance of public governance and agencies, corporate governance of state-owned companies, government-business relations across industries

Magdalena is a graduated PhD student at Political Science Department. She holds an MA degree in European Studies from Adam Mickiewicz Uniwersity, Poland, and in Political Science from Central European University.
Magdalena's dissertation focuses on transnational cooperation between trade unions from Western and Central-Eastern Europe. Her other research interests include industrial relations in Europe, labor and postcommunist transition and political economy of EU's Eastern enlagrement.

Graduated with a B.A. from The New School (Eugene Lang College) in New York. Graduated with an M.A. from Central European University in Budapest. Currently a PhD candidate at Central European University.

Diana E. Burlacu is a PhD Student at the Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy, and International Relations, Central European University, Political Science, Budapest and an Early Stage researcher at ELECDEM (Training Network in Electoral Democracy funded by the European Commission 7th FP) since September 2009. She holds a MA in Political Behaviour from the University of Essex, UK and a BA in Political Science from the National School of Political Science and Public Administration, Bucharest. Her dissertation focuses on the relationship between voting behaviour and the quality of governance. Research interests: voting behavior, public opinion, comparative politics, and quantitative methods.

Raluca Csernatoni received her Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from The West University of Timisoara, Romania. Her bachelor thesis dealt with the American neoconservative discourse and its foreign policy influence post-9/11, laying emphasis on the “regime change” practices, as American foreign policy tools, in Afghanistan and Iraq. Raluca has a Master of Arts degree in International Relations and European Studies from the Central University,Budapest. Her Master thesis focused on the EU’s institutional developments in the field of defence. Presently, Raluca is a 3rd year PhD Student at the Department of International Relations and European Studies at Central European University, her PhD thesis concentrating on the Brussels-end of ESDP missions and the involved new member states in the ESDP framework. Her PhD research proposes to cross-cut the scholarship of Pierre Bourdieu with the broader debates on Europeanization and strategic culture, the principal aim being that to trace and signify the reform dynamic of the new EU member states’ security sectors. Her research interests range from International Relations theory, European Union foreign policy, European Security and Defence Policy, to critical and poststructuralist theories in security studies.

Zoltán is a Political Science PhD Student. He holds an MA in Nationalism Studies from CEU and concluded his degree in Political Science at Lisbon's Universidade Tecnica, having also studied in Kiev, Ukraine and Prague, Czech Republic.
He has worked as a journalist in Hungary, Ukraine and the Czech Republic where he became interested in regional politics.
His research focuses on the Politics of Memory of post-communist Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Stela Garaz is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at CEU. Previously she received an M.A. degree in political science at CEU and a licentiate diploma at State University of Moldova.
Her research is mainly focused on democratic institutions and ethnic politics in post-Soviet countries. The main goal of Stela's Ph.D. project is to determine whether the regimes with concentrated political power, by virtue of their inner logic, are conducive to inter-ethnic instability in the post-Soviet multi-ethnic states.

Daniel graduated as a PhD student of Political Science at Central European University in Budapest and a junior fellow at the Institute of Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on the effectiveness and inequality of education, and the political economy of education. He has published in English in Educational Research and Evaluation and in Prospects, and also in several Hungarian publications such as the Education in Hungary 2006.

Asli is a probationary Doctoral candidate in Political Science, Comparative Politics. Her main research interests are political representation and participation; civil society and social movements; and gender and politics. She received her MA in Political Science in Central European University, Budapest (2011) and BA in International Relations in Koc University, Istanbul (2009). She is currently working on women’s representation in Turkey for her doctoral dissertation.

Blagoy is a probationary PhD candidate at the Political Economy track of the Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations at CEU. His research interests include EU political economy (internal market and Lisbon Agenda) and environmental policy implementation.
Blagoy earned his Bachelor degree from the American University in Bulgaria with a double major in European Studies and Economics. He finished his Master's at CEU in International Relations and European Studies.

Joanna Maria Kostka is Doctoral Student at Political Science Department, Public Policy track. She received her MA in Public Policy and Administration from the Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. She is interested in the emergence of the Roma-inclusion strategy at the European Level. For her dissertation she is researching the Roma-inclusion strategies in European Structural Funds Distribution. She is currently teaching the Intorduction to Political Science and European Studies at the Roma Access Program    
 

Renata is Doctoral Candidate at Political Science Department, Public Policy track. She is first CEU PhD student awarded Yehuda Elkana Fellowship. Her first MA was in Psychology from the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia (2002). Her second MA was from CEU in International relations and European studies (2003). Her present research interest includes: changes in higher education (HE) governance as result of interplay of domestic actors and international influence; mobility in HE.

Renata has over 15 years of experience with HE policy - as student leader, civil servant and analyst in Slovak Governance Institute. In 2009 she was the most cited expert on education in Slovakia. 2010-2012 she worked as Slovak Prime Minister’s external adviser in the area of education. In 2010 she co-established Higher Education Research Group at CEU. Now she is member of supervisory 3 boards of Academic Ranking and Rating Agency, Slovak Academic and Information Agency, Loan Fund for Starting Teachers.

Matthew is a PhD Candidate on the Political Economy Track. His academic and professional background is in international development, with a Ba (Hons) in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia, UK (2005), and an MSc in Globalisation and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (2009). He has worked as a researcher and project manager for international NGOs and universities in the UK, Malawi and Papua New Guinea.

His PhD research area is transnational labour regulation with a focus on corporate codes of conduct and international framework agreements.

Kristin Makszin is teaching Methods and Research Design at IRES in the Fall of 2011. She is a PhD candidate at the Political Science and International Relations departments and specializes in political economy. Her background is in mathematics and economics. Kristin's research focuses on how to use quantitative methods in social science for researching topics with limited available data or limited number of cases. Her dissertation research investigates the role of political parties in determining instances of reform and continuity of welfare states in Central and Eastern Europe. She also teaches statistics at McDaniel College Budapest and has served as a Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Imperfections in Democracies (DISC) at CEU.

Gergo holds an MA in International Studies (2005) from Corvinus University of Budapest and a post-graduate master’s degree in International Business Economics (2006) from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium). In 2005, he received the Pro Scientia Gold Medal from the Council of National Scientific Student’s Association of Hungary. He is a member of the Political Economy Research Group at CEU. Since September 2009 he also works at the Institute for Political Science of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences as a junior research fellow. He writes his PhD on the patterns of uneven regional development in postsocialist Central Europe.

Manuel has a BA in International Relations from the University of Timisoara (Romania) and an MA in International Relations from CEU. His research interests are: critical security studies, European approaches to security, European security and defence practices, European foreign policy, IR theory, political theory and sociology, critical and post-structuralist theories applied to IR.

Dissertation title (provisional): "Actors, Audiences and Societal Security: the Case of Italian Vigilantes".

Johannes Müller holds a B.A. in Political Science from Bielefeld University, Germany, attended the International Program of the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, and earned an M.A. in 'International Relations: Global Governance and Social Theory' from Jacobs University Bremen and the University of Bremen. Johannes also co-founded and co-managed an internet/media agency, was a consultant for the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (UNEP/AEWA) and an intern in the Representation of the European Commission in Berlin. Since 2009, Johannes has been working towards a PhD in the International Relations track of the Doctoral School at CEU. His research interests include (North/South) regional integration, European foreign policy, and multilateral environmental governance. His dissertation specifically addresses Euro-Mediterranean political / institutional integration. Johannes speaks English, German, French and Spanish, as well as some Portuguese, Arabic, and Hungarian.

Norbert Sabic is a Doctoral Candidate at the Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy, and International Relations. Norbert obtained a Bachelor of Science with a major in Education from the University of Jönköping (Sweden), and received a joint European Master degree in Higher Education policy and management studies from the University of Olso (Norway). After his studies, Norbert moved back to Serbia, where he worked for two years as a technical manager at Subotica Tech- College of Applied Sciences. Norbert is also affiliated to the Center of Education Policy in Serbia, where he conducts research in the area of higher education.
Norbert’s research interests concern higher education and innovation policies. Besides, he has extensively explored the topic of academic rankings, representation of minorities in higher education, and R&D performance in the Balkans. He has also presented papers at several national conferences in Serbia, and published some of his works in national journals.

Natalia has studied her MA degree on Conflict Resolution and Analysis at Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey and her BA degree (Licenciatura) on Political Science and International Relations at Buenos Aires University, Argentina graduating with distinctions. Her main academic interests are in the processes of post-conflict reconstruction, international dialogue, minority reintegration and third party intervention. Natalia is a third year PhD candidate at the Department of International Relations and European Studies at Central European University and member of the Conflict and Security Research Group.She is currently researching on the role of third parties in the process of ethnic reintegration in municipalities of Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo. Previous returning to academia, she has extensively worked as a consultant for Argentinean Parliament and Government on human rights, security and local government issues and has been trainer on conflict management and prevention, human rights and local government at the International Academy of Leadership, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Germany.

Sebastian has an MA in Political Science from the Political Science Department at CEU. His research covers a variety of topics such as: the determinants of political information; the role that political knowledge plays in voting behavior; measurement of political information; data quality; and the influence of genetics on political attitudes and behavior. The common denominator of all these projects lies in the fact that they all are based on the analysis of large datasets.

David Pupovac is a PhD Candidate in the Comparative Politics track. He holds a BA in philosophy from the Belgrade University and a MA in political science from the CEU, with a certificate in electoral politics. His main academic interests are the ideology and types of European radical right parties; the electoral support of radical right parties; voting behavior; electoral systems; political methodology and especially quantitative methods (clustering methodology, hierarchical models and time series/panel data analysis).

Lela Rekhviashvili a PHD student at the Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations, Central European University, Political Economy Track. She received MA degree in Transition in South Caucasus from Center of Social Sciences, Tbilisi State University in 2009 and another MA degree in Political Science from Central European University in 2010.
Her dissertation aims to study the coping mechanism of poor and marginalized groups, particularly group of internally displaced persons in Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Her research interests are: economic transition in South Caucasus, role of civil society and the state in resolving social problems, political economy of development.

Vera is a PhD student at Political Science department, studying industrial development in East and Southern Europe under the influence of foreign direct investment. Her interests include development and foreign investment, dynamics of industrial development, labour relations and political economy of transition. Vera is also working as a research assistant in a number of international projects dealing with trajectories of industrial relations and socio-economic development models in Europe.

Gëzim Selaci, holding an MA in International Relations and Contemporary Political Theory from the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster in London, is presently a PhD candidate in Political Science at the Central European University in Budapest, while holding the position of an Assistant Lecturer in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Prishtina.

His research focus is on the politics of international state-building and legitimacy of international transitional administrations in post-conflict societies.

Daniela is a Doctoral Candidate at Political Science Department, Comparative Politics track.

Valentin is a Probationary Phd Candidate in the Political Theory Track. His main interests are the development of totalitarian philosophy, theories of distributive justice and theories of democracy.

Imre is a first-year PhD student on the Political Economy track. His research deals with the politics of public employment, focusing on the relationship between public employment regimes and welfare service provision in post-industrial democracies. As a research assistant for the European Commission’s FP7 GUSTO project, he has also done research on industrial relations in the public healthcare sector in Hungary.

Sanja Tepavcevic is PhD Candidate in Political Science Department, Political Economy track. She holds MA in International Relations and European Studies from CEU; MA and BA in Journalism from Moscow State University. She has been working as journalist and anchor at Russian and Serbian media including TV, radio and newspapers. She also worked in communication and public relations agencies holding different positions.

Her research interests include International Political Economy and International Relations Theories, with focus on economic interdependence and cooperation, social and cultural regionalism and foreign policy of the former ‘Second World’ countries. Her special focus is on Russian foreign economic and energy policy. She is a member of Political Economy Research Group at CEU.

Medet Tiulegenov is a PhD student in Political Science (comparative politics) at CEU and is also teaching at the International and Comparative Politics Department of American University of Central Asia (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) and his research and teaching interests include social movements, governance and public policy, civil society in transition countries. Until recently Medet has been working in Soros Foundation-Kyrgyzstan, and prior to that he was a research fellow at the National Academy of Sciences and Kyrgyz National University. He graduated in history from Kyrgyz State University and received Master of Public Administration from Bowling Green State University, USA.

Zbigniew Truchlewski is a PhD candidate in Political Economy. He graduated from La Sorbonne, Sciences Po Paris and the College of Europe and worked as an economist in the European Central Bank before coming to the CEU. Zbig is also one of the editors of the think tank Nouvelle Europe in Paris.

Zbig chairs PERG (the Political Economy Research Group) for the Academic Year 2011-2012.

Areas of expertise: Economic and Monetary Union, economic governance, fiscal governance, political economy of capitalism in advanced political economies and in Central and Eastern Europe, economics and politics of transition and policy reform, European cohesion policy.

Marcela Veselkova received her MA in International Relations and European Studies from Central European University (2005) and a master-level degree in Economics and Business Management from the University of Economics in Bratislava (2004). Marcela’s interests include the international monetary relations/international finance and economic history. Her PhD dissertation investigates the global imbalances from the historical perspective.
Marcela Veselkova graduated in 2010/11.