Raluca Grosescu is a Lecturer in politics at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Bucharest. Her research focuses on corporate accountability and business and human rights across the globe, as well as post-dictatorial justice and memory in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Her latest monograph Justice and Memory after Dictatorship: Latin America, Central Eastern Europe and the Fragmentation of International Criminal Law was published by Oxford University Press in 2024. She is also the co-editor of Socialism and International Law. The Cold War and Its Legacies (Oxford University Press, 2024), and the Principal Investigator of the ERC-Consolidator Grant Transnational Advocacy and Corporate Accountability for Major International Crimes (2021-2026).
Ruxandra Ivan is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Bucharest. She holds a PhD in political science from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (2007) and she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Romanian Academy, Iași branch. Since 2017, she is habilitated to coordinate PhD theses at the University of Bucharest. She also worked as an expert at the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania (2007), researcher at the Romanian Diplomatic Institute (2008-2015), Counsellor at the Government of Romania (2016-2017) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2017-2018). Some of her publications are: La politique étrangère roumaine, 1990-2006, Bruxelles, Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 2009; (Ed.), New Regionalism or No Regionalism? Emerging Regionalism in the Black Sea Area, London, Ashgate, 2012 (reedited by Routledge, 2016); (Ed.), “Transformarea socialistă”: politici ale regimului comunist, între ideologie şi administraţie, Iași, Polirom, 2009. Currelntly, she works as a researcher in the project PN-III-P3-3.6-H2020-2020-0190 –Excelențã Științificã SNSPA, developing the theme of the private military and security companies.
Claudiu Craciun is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences and European Studies of the Faculty of Political Sciences, National School of Political and Administrative Studies. He is the author and editor of specialized volumes such as State, violence and sovereignty (Bucharest: Tritonic, 2007) and co-editor with Paul E. Collins of the volume "Management of public policies. Transformations and perspectives". Iasi: Polirom, 2008. He teaches "European Politics", "Party Organization", and "Politics and Economy of the European Peripheries". Claudiu Crăciun was awarded his PhD in Political science in 2007 at SNSPA. He was the President of the International Association of Political Science Students - IAPSS (2002), president of the Global Society of Romanian Students and Young Professionals - GRSPsociety (2009) and a Member of the Executive Committee of the European Network of Political Sciences - EpsNet (2004-2006). He completed a master's program in European politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (2008). He worked in various positions as policy expert at the General Secretariat of the Government and the Ministry of Education (2004-2009), and in various public sector consulting projects.
Monica Stroe is a Lecturer in Anthropology at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA) in Bucharest. She holds an MA in Nationalism Studies from Central European University and a PhD in Social Anthropology from SNSPA. She carried out research on heritage, identity politics, ethnicity and cultural landscapes in Transylvania, small-scale food producers, the impact of European policies on farming practices and traditional ecological knowledge, and the food practices of the middle class. She teaches courses on Anthropology of food, Anthropology of heritage, Sociology of consumption, and Material Culture. Among her latest publications are The foodie flâneur and the periphery of taste in Bucharest’s street food scene (in F. Edwards, R. Gerritsen, and G. Wesser, eds., Food, Senses and the City, Routledge 2021), Preserves exiting socialism: Authenticity, anti-standardization and middle class consumption in postsocialist Romania (in E. Krasteva-Blagoeva, ed., Approaching Consumer Culture: Global Flows and Local Contexts, Springer 2018).
Miruna Butnaru-Troncotă is Associate Professor, PhD advisor and Director of the Centre of European Studies (CES) in the Department of International Relations and European Studies of National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA) in Bucharest (Romania). She has a direct research interest in EU integration, Europeanization research agenda, EU foreign and security policy and the post-conflict reconstruction of the Western Balkans. She is an Alumnus of the European Fund for the Balkans and Future Lab Europe. She published numerous academic articles and policy papers focused on the process of EU enlargement in the Western Balkans. She obtained her PhD in SNSPA Romania with a thesis on the Europeanization of Bosnia and Herzegovina and held various research fellowships in Berlin, Ljubljana, Graz and Warsaw.
Ileana Gabriela Szasz is an Associate Lecturer at the National School for Political and Administrative Studies in Bucharest, Faculty of Political Sciences and at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work. Her research interests are in Visual Anthropology and Women Sport Studies. She teaches MA classes in Visual Anthropology and Ethnographic Filmmaking. Her PhD research was focused on the methodological challenges of personal documentary filmmaking. As a practitioner filmmaker, she has been involved in the production of documentaries that have gained recognition international film festivals. Ileana was a recent beneficiary of the Centre International d’Etude du Sport (CIES) scholarship for a research on women’s football in Romania. Since 2015 she is a part of the managing team, trainer and artistic director of Vira Association, which focuses on implementing projects on youths’ education through culture in marginalized communities, on living and working conditions in Romania and more recently on the challenges of women athletes.
Daniel Gheorghe has been with the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest, since November 2017. At the same time, Daniel is an Advisor for the Government of Romania in matters related to combating anti-Semitism. Also, Daniel holds a PhD from the same university with a research focusing on the EU-Israel relations and the influence of the Israeli lobby on the EU's decision-making process. Between March-August 2019, Daniel was a trainee at the European Commission where he worked in DG JUST under the supervision of the European Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism. During his appointment, Daniel was involved in organising the EU Commission High Level Working Group on Combating Antisemitism. His research interests cover topics like EU Neighbourhood Policy, EU-Israel relations, anti-Semitism in Europe, political parties and populism.
Damiana Oţoiu is a political and legal anthropologist (PhD, Université Libre de Bruxelles), currently an assistant professor at the Political Science Department, University of Bucharest. Her research is focused on how property rights over museum collections are (re)defined and disputed in postcolonial contexts. She has carried out long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, France, and Belgium, and coordinated several research projects, including Museums and Controversial Collections. Politics and Policies of Heritage-Making in Post-colonial and Post-socialist Contexts (2015–17) and Decolonial Practices in Museum Collections (Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa): Local Histories and Global Circulations (2021–22). Together with colleagues from Germany, Belgium, Benin, South Africa, and France, she has been coordinating a set of research and educational projects devoted to the ways in which museums deal with colonial legacies and their reverberations in the present, for instance L’Académie des Traces. She is the co-author of Felicity Bodenstein, Damiana Oţoiu, Eva Maria Troelenberg (eds.), Contested Holdings: Museum Collections in Political, Epistemic and Artistic Processes of Return, New York, Berghahn Books, 2022. Her most recent publication is Felicity Bodenstein, Damiana Oţoiu, Anna Seiderer, and Margareta von Oswald, Traces du dé/colonial au musée [Traces of de/coloniality in the museum], Horizons d’attente, Paris, 2024.
Andrei Miroiu is an Associate Professor în the Department of International Relations and European Integration, NUPSPA Bucharest. He is teaching and researching international relations theories, armed groups and security issues of the Global South. Some of his articles and reviews were published in Small Wars & Insurgencies, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Mirovaya ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya, Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Perspectives on Politics. He is the author of Political Theory of Armed Groups. Social Order and Armed Groups, New York: Springer, 2020; Romanian Counterinsurgency and its Global Context, 1944-1962, Londra: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016 and Balanţă şi hegemonie. România în politica mondială, 1913-1989, Bucureşti: Tritonic, 2005.
Magdalena Albulescu is Associate lecturer at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA), Bucharest. She is a researcher interested in how education policies influence the national education and pedagogical systems. She has published in Journal of Educational Sciences & Psychology, Journal of Democracy and Electoral Studies, Proceedings of Academos Conferences and he has extensive experience in writing and implementing various types of national and international projects. She is also member of the non-competitive systemic project of the Ministry of Education, Professionalization of teaching career – PROF. In the Excelență FSP / SNSPA project, she coordinates the component of institutional development and increasing the visibility of FSP / SNSPA internationally.
Arpad Todor is a professor and Ph.D. supervisor at the Faculty of Political Science, National University of Political and Administrative Studies (SNSPA). He coordinates the Master in Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development and teaches public policy, EU affairs, and environmental policies. Previously, he worked as a public policy coordinator at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, managing projects related to European affairs, resilience to disinformation, and international aid. Since 2022, he has served as Deputy Director at the Euro-Atlantic Center for Resilience and is a member of Romania's Advisory Council for the Evaluation of Normative Acts. Arpad holds two Ph.D.s in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute and SNSPA. He has been involved in various international projects, including "Willing to Pay?" and the EUandi project, and has collaborated with NGOs like the Pro-Democracy Association and Terra Mileniul III. His recent co-edited work, Europeanisation of Environmental Policies and their Limitations, was published by Springer in 2021. His publications are available on Academia and ResearchGate.
Mariuca Petre joined our project as a project manager in January 2024. She also manages the ERC Consolidator Grant Transnational Advocacy Networks and Corporate Accountability for International Crimes (CORPACCOUNT). With over 18 years of experience in Film Directing and International Relations, Mariuca has contributed to several award-winning projects at international film festivals. Since 2019, she has transitioned into managing EU and Norway Grants-funded projects, merging her filmmaking expertise with a focus on International Relations. As a project manager, Mariuca is skilled in leading teams, resolving challenges, and ensuring clear communication. Her career progression from Film Directing to Project Management reflects a strong combination of creative and strategic thinking, with a commitment to driving impactful projects forward.
Mircea Valceanu acted as the project manager from January 3, 2022, to December 1, 2023. He is an economist with over ten years of experience in leading teams and managing large budgets in the private financial and banking sector in institutions such as Eximbank, OTP Bank, Eximasig (CARE Romania S.A.). He also has experience in the public sector, as Head of Cabinet of State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, where he coordinated the office, represented the Romanian Ministry of Finance at the EU Council’s Task Force of Coordinated Action (TFCA), prepared and managed administrative aspects of the Romanian’s Presidency of the EU Council.