Dr Simona Guerra is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Surrey and International Chair (May-June 2022) at Cevipol. Her main research interests focus on public Euroscepticism, politics and religion, Central and Eastern European politics, and corruption and informality. To date she published two books, contributed to further five, several journal articles, and is working on further two volumes. Simona is chief editor, with Dr Alexandra Segerberg (Uppsala University), of Political Research Exchange (PRX), the first ECPR open access journal, promoting innovation and debate across the breadth of political science. She also holds several teaching awards, from students at the University of Nottingham, Loughborough University and the University of Leicester. She has held visiting positions at Unitelma La Sapienza in Rome (2014-15), University of Sussex (2015-16), London School of Economics (2017), University of Zagreb (2018), Carlos III, in Madrid (2019), and as Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (Bruges campus).
At Cevipol she will work with Prof Nathalie Brack and present her work on attitudes and trust towards the EU (with Prof. Nathalie Brack)
Further, while also spending time as Visiting Researcher at the European Parliament, Simona will work on her project on Yesterday’s EU Founding Mothers for Today’s Women.
Abstract: The study of European integration centres on the blueprint of the Founding Fathers. They led to the foundation of the European Coal and Steel Community (1952), and later to the Treaty of Rome (1957). Women are completely absent when reading and studying the process of European integration. While European integration was undisputedly determined by the motivation and work of the Founding Fathers, it is unfair to downplay the role of women. This project seeks to examine women’s substantive representation to promote their political presence in textbooks and within EU politics, where women still represent a minority (39% in the European Parliament).
Previous appointments:
· Acting Head of School, University of Leicester (July 2018-January 2019);
· Deputy Head of School, University of Leicester (April 2017-August 2019);
· Associate Professor, University of Leicester (September 2016-June 2020);
· Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Leicester (April–September 2016);
· Associate Professor, 14/C3, by direct appointment of an Italian citizen currently working abroad, Scuola di Studi Internazionale and the Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale, University of Trento (art. 15 comma 6, D.R.n.563, 29.10.2013), January 2016, declined;
· Lecturer in Politics, University of Leicester (May 2012-April 2016);
· Lecturer in Politics, Loughborough University (September 2010-May 2012);
· Teaching Fellow, University of Nottingham (September 2008-August 2010);
· Research Associate, Cardiff University (April-September 2008);
· Graduate Associate Tutor, Sussex European Institute, University of Sussex (January 2005-June 2007).
September 2008: DPhil in Politics and Contemporary European Studies, Sussex European Institute, Politics and Contemporary European Studies, University of Sussex. Research title: ‘Domestic Proxies and the European Factor before and after accession: Polish attitudes toward EU integration in a comparative perspective’. DPhil supervisors: Prof. Aleks Szczerbiak and Prof. Alan Mayhew (10 October 2004-16 September 2008). Formally awarded 30 January 2009.
2005: MSc in Social Research Methods (Pass with Distinction), School of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies, University of Sussex (10 October 2004 – 5 November 2005).
2001: MA in European Studies (Pass with Excellence), C.R.I.E, Università degli Studi di Siena, Italy, Uniwersytet Jagielloński (Instytut Spraw Publicznych), Krakow, Poland, and Université Robert Schuman (Institut des Hautes Etudes Europeénnes), Strasbourg, France. Research paper: ‘La Polonia e l’allargamento ad Est dell’Unione europea: le posizioni della Francia e della Germania’, (on Poland and the eastward enlargement of the European Union, and the French and German positions), published in 2002.
Other degrees and diplomas:
2000: Postgraduate Diploma in International Relations, Forum per i problemi della pace e della guerra, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy.
1999: Postgraduate Certificate in International Relations, as above.
1996 Degree (BA) in Foreign Languages – Russian and English, with exams in Contemporary History and History of Political Ideas (110/110) and 25 exams taken out of 20 compulsory exams. Research thesis: ‘Il populismo dei Čajkovtsy e Sergej Michajlovič Kravčinsky’ (on Populism in Russia, the Chaikovtsy, and Sergej Michaylovich Kravchinsky), Università degli Studi di Pisa.
Books:
Forthcoming: The Oxford Handbook of Polish Politics (with Katarzyna Walecka and Fernando Casal Bertoa), Oxford University Press.
2017: Euroscepticism, Democracy and the Media. Communicating Europe, Contesting Europe, Basingstoke: Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology (with Manuela Caiani), ISBN 978-1-137-59642-0.
2013: Central and Eastern European Attitudes in the Face of the Union. A Comparative Perspective, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN-10: 0230279864 | ISBN-13: 978-0230279865.
Edited volumes:
2013: 'Confronting Euroscepticism', Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 51, No. 1, January (with Simon Usherwood and Nick Startin).
Refereed journals:
2021: ‘Aporias in Greece and Spain’s Left-wing Inclusionary Populism’, New Political Science, Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 339-354 (with E. Fanoulis)
2021: ‘Understanding public Euroscepticism’, Italian Journal of Electoral Studies IJES - QOE, Vol. 83, No. 2, pp. 45-56.
2020 ‘The politics of the EU as crisis, mobilization and catharsis’, Comparative European Politics, Vol. 18, No. 5, pp. 982-991.
2020: ‘Veridiction and leadership in transnational populism: The case of DiEM25’, Politics and Governance, Vol. 8, No. 1.
2019: ‘Immigration, that’s what everyone’s thinking about …’ The 2016 British EU referendum seen in the eyes of the beholder, Journal of Language and Politics, Vol. 18, No. 5, pp. 651-670.
2018: ‘Gender, Ownership and Engagement during the EU Referendum: Gendered Frames and the reproduction of Binaries’, European Journal of Politics and Gender, Vol. 1, No. 3 (with R. Guerrina and T. Exadaktylos).
2017: ‘Anger and protest: referendum and opposition to the EU in Greece and the UK’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs (co-authored with E. Fanoulis), Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 305-324.
2017: ‘Without losing my religion: The dilemmas of EU integration in Poland’, Culture and Society: Journal of Social Research., Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 52-68.
2016: ‘Distrust Unbound: What next after joining the EU’, The Journal of Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Vol. 49, No. 3, pp. 233-241.
2013: ‘Does familiarity breed contempt? Determinants of public support for European integration and opposition to it before and after accession’, Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 51, No. 1, pp. 38-50.
2010: ‘Not Just Europeanization, Not Necessarily Populism: Potential factors underlying the mobilization of populism in Ireland and Poland’, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 273-291 (with J. FitzGibbon).
2009: ‘The League of Polish Families between East and West, past and present’, The Journal of Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 527-549 (with S. de Lange).
2009: ‘Election or Referendum?: The 2007 Polish Parliamentary Election’, Representation, Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 75-85 (with M. Bil).
Book chapters:
Forthcoming: ‘The Russian Populism of Narodniki and Reflections on Marxism’ (with Yiannis Mylonas), in Y. Stavrakakis and G. Katsambekis (eds) Research Handbook on Populism, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
2022: ‘Civil society and the EU’ in M. Cini and N. Perez-Solorzano (eds.) European Union Politics, Oxford University Press, 7th ed. (co-authored with H.J. Trenz).
2021: ‘The M5S: From the stars to government’, in ‘Uprising of the Outsiders’, eds by Frank Decker, Bernd Henningsen, Marcel Lewandowsky and Philipp Adorf.
2020: ’Poland and the EU: The historical roots of resilient forms of Euroscepticism among public Euroenthusiasm’, in M. Gilbert and D. Pasquinucci (eds) The Historical Roots of Euroscepticism, Amsterdam: Brill, European Studies Series.
Working papers, Electoral Briefings, Professional Journals, Analyses Blog posts, and Contributions:
2022: Why crises don’t strengthen the EU, Ideas on Europe (UACES) for EU!Radio
2022: Ukraine: Poland reminds the EU how vulnerable its border nations really are, The Conversation
2021: The Polish people support the EU - it's their government that continues to antagonise Brussels, The Conversation
2021: ‘La deriva di Varsavia’, Huffington Post, 19 October.
2021: ‘Polonia-Ue: verso nuove battaglie sullo Stato di diritto. L’intervista a Simona Guerra’, Euractiv Italia, 18 October.
2021: ‘La torsione illiberale e il rapport con l’Ue’, ItalianiEuropei, January.
2021: ‘Goodbye Erasmus+’, Agenda Publica, 17 February.