Team
Aleksandra Maatsch is a Professor of Political Science and the Jean Monnet Chair in European Politics at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wrocław. After completing her studies at the Central European University in Budapest (CEU), Aleksandra Maatsch acquired her PhD in political science from the University of Bremen in Germany (2011). She then worked at the Institute of Public Affairs (IPP-CSIC) in Madrid, at the University of Cambridge (POLIS), the Max Planck Institute in Cologne and at the University of Cologne (interim Chair of European and Multilevel Politics). Aleksandra Maatsch acquired her habilitation from the University of Chemnitz (Germany). She specializes in comparative European politics and legislative studies. Her research has been published in various journals such as West European Politics, the Journal of Common Market Studies and the Journal of European Public Policy.
Email: aleksandra.maatsch@uwr.edu.pl
ORCID: 0000-0002-0408-2176
Anna Pacześniak is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Wrocław (since 2005) specializing in European and Polish politics as well as comparative political party analysis. From 2011 to 2018 she worked as a lecturer at the Free University of Brussels. From 2016–2017 Anna Pacześniak was a fellow at Wallonia-Brussels International. She has conducted various research projects in Poland and abroad, for instance “Européanisation des partis politiques – méthodes d’étude” (research project conducted in 2010 in France). At the University of Wrocław, she leads the research group studying European political processes. She is also a Deputy Director of the Discipline of Political Science and Administration. Anna Pacześniak has published extensively in the area of political parties, the most recent publications being “Party organization and communication in Poland” (Palgrave 2021) and “Comprendre la Pologne. Société, politique et institutions” (Paris 2016).
Email: anna.paczesniak@uwr.edu.pl
ORCID: 0000-0002-4782-4432
Karolina Borońska-Hryniewiecka is a Professor of Political Science and the principal investigator in the InPaCo project. She works as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Political Science and is also member of the Jean Monnet Chair at the University of Wrocław. Since 2020 she has been a visiting fellow at the Centre européen de sociologie et science politique of the Université Paris 1- Sorbonne. Her research lies at the intersection of comparative European politics, legitimacy and legislative studies. In the past, she worked as a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute (2012-2013), lecturer at the Masaryk University (2013-2015), head of EU programme at the Polish Institute of International Affairs (2016-2018) and was also a visiting fellow at (CEE) Sciences Po (2019-2020). She authored a book “National parliaments in the political system of the European Union. Roles, ambitions and limitations (Parlamenty narodowe w systemie politycznym Unii Europejskiej. Role, ambicje i ograniczenia) published by Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar (Warsaw, 2021). Her works have appeared inter alia in European Political Science Review, Politics and Governance, Journal of European Integration and The Journal of Legislative Studies.
Email: karolina.boronska-hryniewiecka@uwr.edu.pl
Dr. Tomasz P. Woźniakowski is an assistant professor at the Institute of Political Science and member of the Jean Monnet Chair, University of Wrocław, and a Bekker postdoctoral fellow at LUISS University, Rome (2022-2024). His research focuses on the political economy of the EU through the lens of comparative federalism and the parliamentary legitimacy of European economic governance. He was awarded the Fulbright-Schuman Fellowship, the first College of Europe-Arenberg European Prize “Exploring Federal Solutions” for an article eventually published in the Journal of European Public Policy and the Supranational Political Economy Prize for his doctoral thesis. He was a postdoctoral researcher in an ERC-funded project at the Hertie School and a lecturer at universities such as IES Abroad and Stanford, Berlin, LMU and LUISS. Additionally, he was a visiting fellow at University of California, Berkeley, LMU Munich (Heinz Laufer Fellow) and Fondation Jean Monnet pour l’Europe in Lausanne (Henri Rieben Fellow). He leads research projects on legitimacy of the EU economic governance and fiscal solidarity in the EU and the US, funded by NCN and NAWA. He was awarded a three-year scholarship for outstanding young scholars by the Polish Minister of Science. His monograph Fiscal Unions: Economic Integration in Europe and the United States was published by Oxford University Press in 2022. He holds degrees in political science and history from the University of Wrocław and a PhD in political and social sciences from the European University Institute, Florence (2018).
Email: tomasz.wozniakowski@uwr.edu.pl
ORCID: 0000-0001-9475-7845
Dr. Ewa K. Strzelecka is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Wrocław and a Visiting Fellow at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Previously, she was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, leading the EU-funded research project Rethinking Peace-building: Women, Revolution, Exile, and Conflict Resolution in Yemen. She also held academic positions as Assistant Professor at the University of Granada (Spain); Postdoctoral Researcher on an ERC-funded project at Nova University of Lisbon (Portugal); and Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), as well as lecturer at the Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Granada. She has also held visiting fellowships in 15 countries, including Harvard University, SOAS–University of London, the Indian Institute of Management, the University of Jordan and the University of Sana’a in Yemen. Ewa Strzelecka holds a PhD in Social and Political Science from the University of Granada and four master’s degrees in Migration, Gender and International Development, Social Anthropology, and Cultural and Religious Studies. Her work integrates research, development, and policy advising. She has consulted on development, gender justice, peace-building, and civil society empowerment for the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN agencies, and NGOs in 17 countries, particularly in the MENA region (Yemen, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, and Western Sahara).
She has received numerous grants, awards, and prizes, including the University of Granada PhD Prize (2018) and the Spanish Ministry of the Presidency’s Juan J. Linz Proxime Accessit Prize for Best PhD Thesis (2015). She has also been an applicant or co-applicant for over 15 sucessfully funded research projects, and 18 mobility grants. Dr. Strzelecka authored the award-winning book Women in the Arab Spring: The Construction of a Political Culture of Feminist Resistance in Yemen (CSIC, 2017) and has published 42 other research papers in prominent journals and volumes.
Email: ewa.strzelecka@uwr.edu.pl
ORCID: 0000-0001-9475-7845
Dr. Kinga Koranyi is an Assistant Professor at the Jean Monnet Chair and the Institute of European Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wrocław, working on the DEUDEM project. After completing her bachelor’s degree in history and political science at McGill University, she pursued her master’s in European policy at the University of Amsterdam before acquiring her PhD in Political Science from the Hertie School (2025). She specializes in European Union politics and governance, with particular focus on the rule of law in Hungary, EU financial sanctions, and fiscal redistribution negotiations. Her research has been published in various journals such as the Journal of European Public Policy and Regional & Federal Studies.
Email: kinga.koranyi@uwr.edu.pl
ORCID: 0000-0001-9475-7845
Dr. Francesco Melito is a reseacher at the JMC working on the DEUDEM project. He is also a former post-doctoral researcher at the University of Trieste, where his research focused on populism and the radical right. He completed his PhD in 2024 in Political Science and Public Administration at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, with a dissertation on illiberalism in Poland. During his PhD, he was an MSCA research fellow in the EU Horizon2020 Project ‘FATIGUE’. Francesco holds an MA in European and International Studies from the University of Trento and Metropolitan University Prague, obtained through a double degree program. His articles have been published in international journals, including Politics, South European Society and Politics, Political Studies Review and East European Politics and Societies.
Email: FRANCESCO.MELITO@dispes.units.it
ORCID: 0000-0002-9323-0328
Bastian Küntzel is a PhD researcher at the Jean Monnet Chair, University of Wrocław, and the Institute for European Studies, TU Chemnitz, where he pursues his PhD in the cotutelle format being supervised by Prof. Aleksandra Maatsch (UWr) and Prof. Stefan Garsztecki (TU Chemnitz). Bastian completed his MA studies in Intercultural Education in Chemnitz. He has been working as a researcher and educational consultant (co-founder of INCONTRO) for various youth organisations as well as the Council of Europe, European Commission and German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). His PhD project deals with the effects of the pandemic-related closure on personal identities in the Polish–German borderland.
Email: bastian@incontro-training.org
Zofia Brzozowiec is a research assistant at the Jean Monnet Chair and a student at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wrocław. In 2024 she worked as a research assistant in the LEGITIMULT project (Horizon Europe) researching social and economic security measures implemented in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a leader of students’ association “Project EUROPE”, Zofia Brzozowiec has worked with the JM Chair organising various outreach events.
Email: 331798@uwr.edu.pl
Former JMC-researchers
Jan Krotký is a former JMC-researcher and a post-doctoral researcher in the InPaCo project at the University of Wrocław. He received master degrees in sociology and European studies at the Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University in Brno, where he also completed his doctorate in international relations and European studies in 2023. In 2021-2022 he worked as a researcher at TU Darmstadt in the HEUREC project on Solidarity and Social Cohesion in Europe. His research focuses on the political discourse in the European Parliament and EU legitimacy. His recent work has been published in the European Policy Analysis, Journal of European Contemporary Studies, and European Security. Currently Jan works as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of International Studies and Political Science at the Masaryk University in Brno where he is the principal investigator in the project “From depoliticization to emprowering dissensus” funded by the Czech Science Foundation.
Email: krotky.jan@fss.muni.cz
ORCID: 0000-0002-0252-5180
Edgars Eihmanis (PhD) is a former JMC-core team researcher and a political scientist working at the intersection of comparative political economy and public policy. Edgars Eihmanis received master’s degrees in sociology and political science from the University of Amsterdam and a PhD degree in political science from the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. He has participated in a number of international projects and his research has been published by leading academic outlets. His article on the effects of the European Semester “Cherry-picking external constraints” was published in Journal of European Public Policy. Before joining the University of Wrocław as a researcher in the NCN-funded project PANDEMO (https://www.pandemo.eu), Edgars Eihmanis was a post-doctoral fellow at the EUI, investigating East Central European socio-economic responses to the pandemic. Currently Edgars workes as a research fellow at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu. He is the principal investigator in the project “Europeanization of Green Industrial Policy” funded by the Estonian Research Council.
Email: edgars.eihmanis@ut.ee
ORCID: 0000-0001-7243-4789