Rosalind Franklin Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the University of Groningen (Netherlands). She completed her undergraduate studies in History and Literature and Linguistics at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and was awarded her doctorate in Modern History by the University of Oxford in 2002. She subsequently held positions at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and the University of Essex. Her research focuses on modern historiography, cultural history and the history of political thought. Her recent book, Historians and Nationalism: East-Central Europe in the Nineteenth Century was published by Oxford University Press (February, 2010). She is participant of the research programme History of Political Thought in East-Central Europe (2008-2013), which is hosted by the Centre for Advanced Study, Sofia.
Experts - Eastern Europe
Monika Baar
Małgorzata Nocuń
Journalist of Tygodnik Powszechny weekly, covers social and political issues concerning Eastern Europe. Awarded by the Mayor of Kiev and independent research institute with the Golden Pen for the best information adbout Orange Revolution in foreign media.
Mykola Ryabchuk
Mykola Ryabchuk (Mikolaj Riabczuk) is a senior research associate at the Ukrainian Centre for Cultural Studies in Kyiv and a co-founder and member of the editorial board of Krytyka monthly (www.krytyka.kiev.ua). He penned five books and many articles on civil society, state/nation building, nationalism, national identity, and post-communist transition in the post-Soviet countries, primarily in Ukraine. Two of his books were translated into Polish (“Od Malorosji do Ukrainy”, 2002; “Dwie Ukrainy”, 2004), and one into Serbian (“Od Malorusije do Ukrajine”, 2003), French (“De la 'Petite Russie' à l'Ukraine”, 2003), and German (“Die reale und die imaginierte Ukraine”, 2006). He was distinguished with the POLCUL Award (1998) and Polish-Ukrainian Capitula Award (2002) for his contribution to Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation.
Stanislav Shushkevich
Politician, physicist. Head of the Belarusian Parliament of the Supreme Soviet of the Belarus (1991–1994). On 8th December 1991, together with the Presidents of Russia (Boris Yeltsin) and Ukraine (Leonid Kravchuk), signed the Declaration dissolving the Soviet Union. He supported free market reforms and played a key role in the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Before his Presidency he was a prominent Belarusian Scientist, a corresponding Member of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences; Doctor and Professor in Physics and Mathematics, author of award–winning textbooks (over 150 articles and 70 inventions), and recipient of numerous state awards. Chairman of the political party Gramada running for the 2006 presidential elections. In June 2006 he was awarded the Jan Nowak Jeziorański Award.
Gottfried Wagner
Born 1950 in Kitzbühel, Austria; studied philosophy and literature in Vienna; worked as a teacher, university lecturer and civil servant in the ministry of education. In the 1990s was a director of KulturKontakt Austria: cultural and educational cooperation with Central, Eastern and South-eastern Europe. From 2002 to 2009 Gottfried was director of the European Cultural Foundation in Amsterdam. Currently working in the ministry for education, arts and culture, Vienna: as a special envoy for international cultural-political projects. Gottfried acts as an advisor to the MORE EUROPE initiative http://www.moreeurope.org/
Kurt Wagner
Enrolled at the Karl-Franzens-University (KFU) Graz in October 1985 and graduated from Stanford Law School (J.S.M) in 1995 and from KFU Graz as Dr. iur. in 1997. Then he joined the office of the Austrian Federal Minister for Education and Cultural Affairs as personal adviser responsible for international relations, adult education and cultural affairs. In 09/2000 he became head of the educational division in 09/2001 director of KulturKontakt Austria, an NGO working with reform countries in East and South East Europe in die fields of education and culture.
