Editorial Board

Prof. Stéphanie Laulhé Shaelou has lectured, researched, supervised, transferred knowledge and run externally funded projects in several universities throughout Europe including Cyprus and the UK for the past 18 years. She is currently Professor of European Law and Reform and Head of the School of Law of the University of Central Lancashire in Cyprus (UCLan Cyprus). She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She supervises numerous LLM dissertations and PhDs in fields related to her own research including on the financial crisis, migration crisis, EU Citizenship, socio-economic rights in times of crisis, Brexit, privacy, the Rule of Law and other current issues in EU law. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises, she is the co-initiator of the Rule of Law Monitoring Mechanism https://lawblog.uclancyprus.ac.cy/rolmm/. She was also the Leader and Academic Coordinator of a Jean Monnet Module entitled “The Law of Financial and Economic Governance in the EU” (FEcoGov) (2014-2017) looking at the multiple implications of the financial crisis in Cyprus and the EU. This project secured the European Commission’s label ‘success story’ and ‘good practice’ upon its completion (https://www.uclancyprus.ac.cy/research/jean-monnet-module/). She belongs to networks of academic or professional experts at the national and EU level, is an expert of the European Commission and its Agencies, and currently participates among others to the Horizon 2020 Sherpa project looking at smart information systems and human rights (https://www.project-sherpa.eu/). She has been a legal expert for the Legal Services of the Republic of Cyprus assisting the Commission of Inquiry on the collapse of the cooperative bank (2018-19). She is a certified Mediator as well as a Data Protection Officer and is very active in the organisation and delivery of CPD courses at the School of Law (https://www.uclancyprus.ac.cy/short-course/law-academy/). She is the Founding Member and Director of the non-profit organisation ICLAIM (Interdisciplinary Centre for Law, Alternative and Innovative Methods) which is used as a social enterprise vehicle for social and community projects having an impact on the society (see www.iclaimcentre.org). View her full academic profile at https://www.uclancyprus.ac.cy/academic/dr-laulhe-shaelou-stephanie/

Ms. Andrea Manoli is a PhD candidate at UCLan and the research fellow of the Jean Monnet Module ‘EU-POP’ and of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Populism. Andrea is an Associate Lecturer at UCLan Cyprus. Her research interests include human rights, sociology of laws, colonialism, history of laws and children’s rights. Her PhD focuses on the lack of child protection within the different de facto and de jure administrative jurisdictions in the Island of Cyprus, with a special reference to child victims of sexual exploitation. Andrea holds an LLM in International Commercial law, an MA in Security and Diplomacy, a TEFL and is a Certified Arbitrator. During her research, she completed a series of specialised courses including: Yale University – Moral Foundations of Politics University of Harvard EDx– Child Protection: Children’s Rights in Theory and Practice; Leiden University – Certificate in Terrorism & Counter-terrorism and Universite de Genève – Certificate in Children’s Rights: An Interdisciplinary Introduction. Andrea is the President of Lions Liberty Larnaca (2019- 2020) and has worked in political institutions and the legal profession (2014-2017). She was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Licensing Authority in early 2019.

Dr Andreas Marcou is a Visiting Fellow at UCLan University (Cyprus) and an editor for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Populism. Andreas holds an LLB from Queen Mary University and an MA in Legal and Political Theory from University College London. In 2020, he was awarded the PhD in Law from Queen Mary, University of London for his thesis entitled ‘A republican theory of civil disobedience’. His thesis proposes a revised model of civil disobedience that recognises such lawbreaking as a democratic form of political activity. Far from an affront to the rule of law and law’s authority, civil disobedience invigorates democratic norms and reaffirms legal authority. Andreas is interested in theories of democracy and political legitimacy both domestically and supranationally, as well as the state of liberal democracies and citizens’ duties within such states. Andreas has previously taught modules such as ‘Jurisprudence and Legal Theory’, ‘Law, Justice, and Ethics’, ‘Democracy and Justice’, and ‘Land Law’. Andreas is also a Research Fellow of the Jean Monnet Module ‘EU-POP’.

Dr. Yalız Akbaba, Interim Professor, Philipps University of Marburg
Dr. Yalız Akbaba works as Interim Professor for Pedagogy of Secondary Schools at the Institute for School Pedagogy at Philipps University of Marburg in Germany. Her research and teaching areas are Education and (Postcolonial) Migration Studies, Critical Race Theory, Teacher Professionalization, School and Class Research, Inclusion, as well as Qualitative Methodologies, especially (Discourse-) Ethnography and Hermeneutics. Her PhD study “Teachers and the migration background. Resisting a Dispositif” (2017 at Beltz Juventa) was awarded the University Dissertation Prize. The discourse ethnographical study analyzes how situated practices in school and class are affected by discourses that create knowledge over foreignness. Among the theoretical findings is the concept of ‘double-binding ethnicity’: While minority teachers are implicitly requested to capitalize their ‘foreignness’, they are called on to do so within reference frames of denigration and marginalization. Subjects also turn out to be resistant within this dispositif, when they adopt powerful conditions in order to expand and reassemble orders, setting examples of how to integrate ambiguities that are constitutive for modernity. One of Yalız’ current projects focuses on anti-pluralistic discourses within critical university teaching. She is a member of Education-and Sociology-Associations in Germany (DGfE and DGS), and reviewer for the European Research Council, SAGE-Journal Qualitative Social Work, and Transnational Social Review, Routledge. Latest publication: The Implications of ‘New Populism‘ for Education. New Cottage: E&E Publishing, 2017 (co-edited with Bob Jeffrey). 

Professor Matej Avbelj, Professor, New University, Ljubljana
Professor Matej Avbelj is a Professor of European Law at the New University, Ljubljana Slovenia. He teaches a variety of EU law, constitutional law and methodology related courses at the Faculty of Government and European Studies, European Faculty of Law and Faculty of Slovenian and International Studies at the New University. He is actively involved, either as a director or a researcher, in a number of Slovenian and international research projects. As a public lawyer, he specializes in the fields of EU law, constitutional law and legal theory. He has provided expert legal advice to private and public bodies in constitutional and EU law-related issues. Professor Avbelj graduated from Ljubljana Faculty of Law, obtained an LL.M at NYU School of Law and defended his Ph.D. at the European University Institute. He has written extensively in the fields of EU law, constitutional law and legal theory. He is the author of more than thirty academic articles and several books (most recently: The Impact of European Institutions on the Rule of Law and Democracy, with Letnar Černič, Hart 2020; The EU under Transnational law, Hart 2018 etc.). He is the editor in chief of the Commentary of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia. His bibliography consists of more than 500 entries.

Dr Bernhard Forchtner, Associate Professor, University of Leicester
Dr. Bernhard Forchtner is Associate Professor at the School of Media, Communication and Sociology of the University of Leicester. He is the Director of Postgraduate Research and Programme Director MA Global Media and Communication. His research interests fall within the areas of the discursive construction of social identities through social memories, environmental communication and/or by far-right populists/radicals. He has previously taught in a number of areas, including qualitative methods (critical discourse analysis, narrative analysis), media, sociological theory and environmental sociology as well as memory studies.

His PhD research looked at different ways in which claims to know the lessons from the past can be utilised very differently, thus constituting a range of subject positions. During his PhD, he was also involved in a major research project on multilingualism and identity in the European Union (funded by the European Commission under its Sixth Framework Programme, contract number: 028702). Since then, his interests have altered and he is now primarily working on the far-right in Europe and environmental communication. He is particularly interested in how issues, such as global warming and/or biodiversity (to name only two), are playing their part in far-right communication. He is increasingly interested in how mainstream discourses about  environmental position subjects enable inclusion and exclusion. His research has been funded by the European Commission (2013-15, Marie Curie Action, FP7/2007-2013, grant agreement no. 327595), the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2009-11) and the Economic and Social Research Council (2007-2010). He has also received smaller grants from the School of Media, Communication and Sociology at the University of Leicester (2017) and by the College in Leicester (Research and Development Grant, 2016).

Dr. Athina Karatzogianni, University of Leicester
Dr Athina Karatzogianni is an Associate Professor in Media and Communication at the University of Leicester, UK. Her research portfolio, on the impact of digitization on conflict, economics and security, reflects a commitment to research that is rigorous and innovative, with applied practice that is relevant and internationally influential. She has an extensive record of publications and citations in disciplinary, field-specific and cross-disciplinary research outlets, and has demonstrated sustained success in securing research income from RCUK and the European Commission. She is Principal Investigator for the H2020 DigiGen The Impact of Technological Transformations on the Digital Generation, leading work on ICT and the transformation of civic participation (digital citizenship) (2019-2022). Previously she was PI for the EU FP7 funded MIG@NET project (2010-2013), which produced the first multi-country studies into conflict and migration in digital networks. Her ESRC project ‘Ethics and Rights in Cybersecurity’ (2014-2017) involved fieldwork with public policy spokespeople for Uber, Airbnb, competition authorities and alternative digital governance activists in Paris, Barcelona and Berlin. Her most recent book is Platform Economics: Rhetoric and Reality in the “Sharing Economy”.

Dr. Natalie Alkiviadou, Independent Expert 
Natalie Alkiviadou, is senior research fellow at Justitia, working on ‘The Future of Free Speech’ project. Her research interests lie in the freedom of expression, the far-right, hate speech, hate crime and non-discrimination. Her monograph ‘The Far-Right in International and European Law’ was published by Routledge in 2019 and her second monograph ‘Legal Challenges to the Far-right: Lessons from England and Wales’ is to be published by Routledge in December 2019. Natalie has
over ten years of experience in working with civil society, educators and public servants in the framework of her role as director and founder of AEQUITAS – an NGO working on human rights education. She participates in European actions such as the High-Level Group on Combatting Racism, Xenophobia and Other Forms of Intolerance. Natalie was the country researcher for a 2019 European Network against Racism report on Hate Crime and has drafted handbooks, strategy papers
and shadow reports for projects funded by the Anna Lindh Foundation, the European Commission and the European Youth Foundation, on themes such as the rights of domestic workers in Cyprus and hate crime and extremism in young people.

Dr. Maria Ivana Lorenzetti, Assistant Professor, University of Verona
Maria Ivana Lorenzetti holds a Ph.D. in English Linguistics from the University of Pisa (2006). She is part of the editorial boards of Bibliography of Metaphor and Metonymy (John Benjamins) and the interdisciplinary journal Iperstoria.  She is currently involved in the “Department of Excellence” Project “Linguistic and Cultural Heritage and Digital Humanities” (funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research), where she is leader of the research group on English Linguistics devoted to the analysis of populist discourse. Her main research interests are in the domains of political discourse, with a recent focus on populist rhetoric, including a contrastive perspective and immigration. Moreover, she is interested in the syntax-semantics interface, textual analysis, cognitive linguistics and translation. She edited “The Languages of Politics /La politique et ses langages” (Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2016) with Marta Degani and Paolo Frassi. Her latest publication is “A cross-linguistic study of new populist language” in M. Kranert and Geraldine Horan (eds.) Discursivity, performativity and mediation in political discourse, Amsterdam, John Benjamins. In 2020 she will co-edit a special issue of Iperstoria entitled “Populism and Its Languages” with Massimiliano Demata (University of Turin).

Dr Ben Pitcher, Reader, University of Westminster
Dr Ben Pitcher is Reader in Sociology at the School of Social Sciences of the University of Westminster. He writes and teaches about race, politics and popular culture. Ben is currently External Examiner for the MA in Race, Media and Social Justice at Goldsmiths. He is Co-Course Leader (with Naomi Rudoe) for the Undergraduate Sociology BA degree. Ben’s teaching interests are in race, cultural studies and social theory. 

His current research explores activations of the prehistoric past in the popular imagination. From trends in leisure, diet and fitness to philosophies of education and childcare, from ideas about sustainable living and post-growth economics to the findings of genetic science, prehistory has become a significant reference point in contemporary culture. The imaginative resources of prehistory are providing diverse clues about how to live a better, healthier or happier life. This project explores why prehistory has come to resonate in our current historical moment. It considers the particular ways in which the distant past is accessed and activated, and speculates what these prehistoric engagements can tell us about the human present and its futures. Ben’s latest book, Consuming Race (Routledge, 2014), explores how the meanings of race are made and remade in acts of creative consumption. Ranging across the terrain of popular culture, and finding race in some unusual and unexpected places, it gives us some fresh and innovative ways of thinking about the centrality of race to our lives. He has recently written articles and chapters on race, debt and the welfare state, the affects of landscape belonging (shortlisted for the 2017 Sage Prize for Innovation and Excellence), the relationship between race and neoliberal capitalism, Barack Obama’s ‘post-black’ politics, the hegemonic position of certain ‘radical’ political projects, and on Top Gear and postfeminist media culture. An article on HBO drama The Wire and cultural studies was co-written with Dr Rebecca Bramall. His first book, The Politics of Multiculturalism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), is an account of the racial politics of the British State under New Labour. It sets out a framework for thinking about race in the twenty-first century, where racism is simultaneously rejected and reproduced. The Politics of Multiculturalism was shortlisted for the 2010 British Sociological Association Philip Abrams Memorial Prize. His work has been featured in national and international news media, and Ben has appeared on BBC Radio 4, Germany’s Deutschlandfunk, Australia’s ABC Radio National and Voice of Islam radio. He has written for numerous blogs and websites, including The Guardian’s Comment is Free. 

He studied Literature at Goldsmiths (BA, first class) and Cultural Studies at Lancaster University (MA, distinction) and the University of East London (PhD). 

Professor Shawn W. Rosenberg, University of California, Irvine
Professor Shawn W. Rosenberg is Professor of Political Science and Psychological Science at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests lie in political psychology, populism, deliberative democracy, ideology and social & development psychology. His academic distinctions include the Outstanding Academic Book award by the American Association of University & College Libraries and the Erik Erikson Award for Early Career Achievement.

In his research, Professor Rosenberg pursues three related fields. Firstly, he has a general theoretical interest in the relation between the individual and society in the explanation of political phenomena. He has written on the conflict between sociological and psychological explanations of behaviour and the need for a theoretical foundation for a social psychology of political life. Secondly, he has dealt with problems of conceptualization and empirical methodology. At various points, he has critiqued the literature on public opinion, political socialization, public choice and deliberative democracy. Thirdly, he has been interested in the various ways in which psychological research can inform the study of political behaviour. In this context, he has done research applying psychological methods to the analysis of political cognition and ideology. Professor Rosenberg is now involved in two research projects. One focuses on the relationship between cognition, communication and democracy. This involves experimental research on democratic deliberation. The second project is on citizen incompetence, the frailty of liberal democracy and the rise of populism.

Professor Rosenberg has served as Chair of the Political Psychology Section of the American Political Science Section and as a Program Chair and a Member of the Governing Council of the International Society of Political Psychology. He has been invited to give numerous lectures in Europe, Asia and North America.

He has published broadly in peer reviewed journals and his monographs/edited books/book contributions include: Deliberation, Participation and Democracy: Can the People Decide? (Editor) London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, The Not So Common Sense: How People Judge Social and Political Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002, Reason, Ideology and Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988, Political Reasoning and Cognition, (with D. Ward and S. Chilton). Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1988, Democracy Devouring Itself: The Rise of the Incompetent Citizen and the Appeal of Right Wing Populism in D.Hur & JM. Sabucedo (Eds.) Psychology of Political and Everyday Extremisms. (forthcoming), 

Dr. Sofia Vasilopoulou, Senior Lecturer, University of York
Dr Sofia Vasilopoulou is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of York. She holds a PhD in Politics from the London School of Economics. Her work examines political dissatisfaction with democracy and democratic institutions across Europe. Specific themes include Euroscepticism, extremism and loss of faith in traditional politics. Her research is situated in the broader fields of European Union Politics, Comparative European Politics, Political Behaviour and Party Politics. She currently leads an ESRC Future Leaders Project entitled ‘Euroscepticism: dimensions, causes and consequences in times of crisis’. For information on the project, please visit http://euroscepticism.org/. Her research appears in the European Journal of Political Research, Journal of Common Market Studies, European Union Politics, Journal of European Public Policy, Government and Opposition, Nations and Nationalism, South European Society and Politics, among others. She has authored Far Right Parties and Euroscepticism: Patterns of Opposition (ECPR Press and Rowman & Littlefield) and co-authored The Golden Dawn’s Nationalist Solution: Explaining the rise of the far-right in Greece (Palgrave Macmillan 2015 with Daphne Halikiopoulou), also published in Greek by Epikdro. She is the co-editor of the European Journal of Political Research and the convenor of the ECPR Standing group on Political Parties.  

She is external examiner for the MSc Democracy and Comparative Politics, Department of Political Science, University College London. Prior to joining the University of York, she was a Fellow in Comparative Political Analysis in the School of Public Policy, University College London, and a Teaching Associate in Politics at Aston University, UK. In 2014, she was a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Zurich.

She was awarded the Peter Mair Party Politics Prize for the Best Paper delivered at the annual 2008 ECPR Summer School on Parties and Party Systems.