Ermek Adylbekov is a parliamentary program manager at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Kyrgyzstan that works to strengthen the representative role of the Kyrgyz parliament, the Jogorku Kenesh, political parties and parliamentarians. In 2009, he became the finalist of the Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program of the United States Department of State and went to the United States to study public administration at the Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs at University of Missouri-Columbia with an aspiration to assist good governance upon return to his home country.
Alexander Alexeev is a PhD student in Political Science at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia. His research focuses on the ideology and discourse of the European populist radical right, especially the concepts of democracy and rights as they are perceived, interpreted, and used by various populist radical right forces in different European contexts.
Ms. Balla obtained a European Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation (E.MA) from the European Inter-University Center for Human Rights and Democratisation (Italy) and Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR). She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations and a Minor Program in Economic Policy from Middle East Technical University (Turkey). Currently she holds the position of Programme Assistant for Civil Society and Gender Programme at OSCE Presence and her work consists in supporting the development and designing of new innovative approaches for the Presence initiatives for youth, gender and civil society.
Battuul Bat-Erdene earned both her Master and Bachelor Degrees in Law at the National University of Mongolia and she also graduated in Florida, USA for her Master in Business. During her study in Tokyo, Japan she dedicated her study in the area of Public Law and Administration. She is currently candidate for Doctoral Degree in Law at the National University of Mongolia. She has also over ten years’ experience working with government, NGOs, and the private sector in Mongolia. She currently works as a Project Coordinator for Level Up: Political Financing with Integrity which is the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA)’s project in Mongolia in cooperation with the Open Society Forum (Soros Foundation
Siniša Bencun is currently engaged with OSCE Mission in Kosovo as Senior Democratization Officer, participating in all election exercises within the Core Team in last three years. He has dominant civil society background in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with more than dozen election observation missions worldwide. He is a PhD candidate at University of Belgrade, interested in research of electoral systems in divided societies.
Olga Brunnerová is from Prague (the Czech Republic). She currently works on her PhD at the Metropolitan University of Prague. After finishing mher master’s thesis on the topic of the development of the Czech political party system after the year of 2010, she decided to focus on newcomer political parties in Europe, and the problematic of their survival and institutionalisation.
Armand Guçe is a graduate in International Affairs from Albania. He has worked with various research platforms domestically and abroad focusing on issues of security, democratization in the Western Balkans, EU Integration, Rule of Law, and Sustainable Development. Currently He works as a Security Analyst for the premises of Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG. Furthermore, he is an editor for two magazines: exit.al and Vostokian.
Lejla Hodzic is a candidate for L. LM in Human Rights at Central European University in budapest and a graduate of International Law from American University in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has great interest in women’s rights and anti-discrimination law, as well as rule of law and combating corruption in transitional societies. She has been working with NGOs in this field, most notably Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Denis Ivanov is a PhD student at the World Economy Institute, Corvinus University of Budapest and the Horizon 2020 Early-Stage Researcher on the study of populism (FATIGUE). His research interests evolve around the issues of transition economies of Eastern Europe, populism, political parties as well as economic inequality in the region. He is a graduate in Master of Interdisciplinary Research and Studies on Eastern Europe (MIREES) from University of Bologna, Italy.
Ayauzhan Kamatayeva is majoring in International Relations and Politics. She is part of Nomad DC (Alumna), Astana Debate Association, Global Shapers Community hub in Astana. She previously worked at the following organizations: Economic Research Institute (2016), Public Foundation Erkindik Kanaty (Wings of Liberty) (2016), Department of Religious Affairs in Astana (2017-2018), and served also as Minister of External Affairs at Student Government of Nazarbayev University, Vice-President of Volunteers Club in Astana.
Dachi Korinteli was born in Tbilisi (Georgia). He graduated Ilia State University and award with a degree in European Union Studies (BA). After two years, he decided to involve in study process anymore and start MA at Ilia State University. After two years, he was awarded with a degree in International Relations. In addition, he is an Erasmus scholar. He was studying at University of Salzburg. His research interest is International Relations and Political science.
Iuliia Krivonosova has a BA in Political Science, MA in Russian, Central and East European studies and MA in European Studies. Her research interests lie in the field of political parties and elections, hence she is doing a PhD on election administration and working as a Junior Research Fellow at the Cost of Democratic Elections research project, Tallinn University of Technology. Besides, Iuliia has been involved into conduct of elections and election observation in different countries and contribute to media with popular science articles on elections.
Bartłomiej Krzysztan is Research Assistant at the Institute of Political Studies in the Polish Academy of Sciences. PhD candidate at the Institute of Political Science in the University of Wrocław. He graduated in political science at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and in cultural studies at the University of Wrocław. His research interests include social and cultural memory, postcolonialism, ethnic and national identities, political anthropology in Poland and South Caucasus.
Irina Kulikova is a Master student at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, studying Politics and Security in Central Asia. She graduated with a Bachelor’s of Law from KIMEP University in Kazakhstan and did a one-year exchange program in International Law at the University of Ferrara in Italy. She has experience working in various law firms in Kazakhstan as a paralegal. She is also a constant participant and organizer of the Model United Nations student conferences in Central Asia and Europe.
Michal Miko was born in the Czech Republic to a Roma musician family from Rokycany. From his childhood he had a very close experience with Romani culture. Michal is a high- school graduate of Social Services and now currently work as freelancer in area of Roma integration in Czech Republic. In the meantime he works for Roma Education Fund, NGO RomanoNet. Michal just works on the educational projects, projects on political participation and election process for Roma in Czech Republic. Mr. Miko was also closely cooperating with the International organizations such as World Bank, Council of Europe, European economical and social comittee, International Labour Organization and European Roma Rights Centre as an expert.
Miroslav Nemčok is a PhD Candidate at Masaryk University who will be soon defending his dissertation. His main interests are electoral systems and their influence on political parties and people’s political participation. His research occurred in Contemporary Politics, East European Politics and Societies, and World Political Science.
Marsila Osmani is a Law graduate with an MSc in Private Law and a postgraduate Masters Degree in Parliamentary Procedures and Legislative Drafting. Started working at the Albanian Parliament in 2015 as a researcher, Currently working for the Parliament as a Project Officer. My duties and responsibilities comprise of the coordinating and monitoring of the projects the Parliament is involved in. This includes staff development, project management, implementation and monitoring of activities.
Kateryna Pesotska is a PhD Student at the Department of Legal Philosophy and Constitutional Law of the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy. The topic of her PhD thesis is «Issues of Intra-Party Democracy in Ukraine». Ms Pesotska holds Master’s (2015) and Bachelor (2013) degrees in Law from National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy. She also holds the position of Parliamentary Program Assistant at the National Democratic Institute’s office in Ukraine, Kyiv.
Piotr Stanisławski is a lawyer and political scientist. Currently he is a PhD candidate and acting Head of Governing Bodies Unit and Senior Compliance Officer at Polish Oil & Gas Company. Interested in transfer of information rules and inspection mechanisms, he is privately fan of modern art, documental photography and mountain sports.
Peter Bence Stumpf is currently employed as a research fellow at the University of Szeged while working on his PhD in Political Science. He has a BA in Political Science, a BA in Business Administration and an MA in International Economics and Business. For the past three years he has been working as a political operative and consultant mainly employed by a Member of the Parliament. In 2014 he had the opportunity to work with the Limited Election Observation Mission deployed to Hungary by OSCE/ODIHR. His main research area is electoral studies.
Teodora Yovcheva is a PhD. candidate at the University of Sofia (Bulgaria). She holds a MA in Political Science from that very same university. She is currently student representative in the board of the Student Council. Previously she was Vice-chairman of the Student Club of Political Scientists and intern at the Administration of the President of Bulgaria (2014).
Burtejin Zorigt is a Ph.D. candidate at the Political Science Department at Central European University (CEU). Her research interests include legislative studies, electoral politics and gender and politics. Her dissertation focuses on the candidate selection of political parties and its effect on women’s political representation. She has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Yangon, where she taught European Politics and Research Design and Methods. Previously, she worked as a research fellow at the Centre for Social Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 2014 to 2016. She received both her B.A. and M.A. degrees (with Honours) in International Relations and Political Science from Corvinus University of Budapest.