Experience
Research Manager, University of Würzburg, 2023 –
Researcher, German Youth Institute (Deutsches Jugendinstitut), Munich, 2021 – 2023
Senior Programme Officer, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Stockholm, 2018 – 2020
Associate Professor, Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty for European Studies, Cluj-Napoca, 2016 – 2018
Principal Investigator, Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies, University of Munich, 2013 – 2019
Managing Director of the project network “Institutions and Institutional Change in Postsocialism”, Munich University, 2010-2015
Visiting Professor of Comparative Government, University of Heidelberg, 2009-2010
Project director at the Center for Applied Policy Research, Munich University, 1995-2009
Research fellow at Humboldt University Berlin and London School of Economics, 1999-2001
Researcher at the Institute of East European Studies, Free University of Berlin, 1992-1994
Education
Ph.D. in Sociology, Free University of Berlin, 1995
Diploma in Political Science, Free University of Berlin, 1991
Fellowships and Research Stays
Kazakh National University Al-Farabi, Almaty, 2014
University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 2005
London School of Economics, 1999-2000
Eötvös-Loránd University Budapest, 1992-1993
Appointments
Senior Associate Researcher, Institute of International Relations and Area Studies, Faculty of European Studies, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, since 2024
Editorial Advisory Board of “Regional and Federal Studies”, since 2018
Advisory Boards to the “Transformation Index” (2003-2018) and “Sustainable Governance Indicators” (2008-2022) projects, Bertelsmann Foundation
Reviewer for the following journals and institutions:
Committee of the Regions; Comparative European Politics; Czech Grant Agency; Democratization; East European Politics and Societies; Estonian Science Foundation; European Research Council; European University Institute; Europe-Asia Studies; European Union Politics; Higher School of Economics, Moscow; International Review of Administrative Sciences; International Studies Quarterly; Journal of European Public Policy; National Science Centre Poland; Österreichischer Wissenschaftsfonds; Palgrave Macmillan; Perspectives on Politics; Politische Vierteljahresschrift; Problems of Post-Communism; Regional and Federal Studies; Romanian Journal of Political Science; Routledge; Southeast European and Black Sea Studies; Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie; World Development; Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft; Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft
Language skills
German (native)
Hungarian, Russian (advanced)
Croatian, Serbian, French (intermediate)
Teaching
Post-graduate, graduate and undergraduate courses at the universities of Cluj-Napoca, Heidelberg, Munich and Almaty, 1996-2018