People at the Centre
Al staff listed below are based in our Department of Politics at the University of Liverpool.
Professor Erika Harris
Erika Harris is the Director of the EWC.
Her research focuses mainly on politics of nations and nationalism, identity politics and the relationship between identity, democracy and European integration generally, but particularly in Eastern and Central Europe and the Balkans.
Dr Hannes Baumann
Hannes Baumann is a Senior Lecturer in Politics.
His main research interests are in the political economy of development and the politics of ethnicity and nationalism. His current research project is the first comprehensive study of the political and economic effects of Gulf investment in non-oil Arab states.
Mate Subasic
Mate Subasic is a PhD Candidate working on nationalism, identity politics and trans-border groups particularly in Southeastern Europe. He has worked on a number of international research projects across Central Europe and the Balkans where he conducted extensive fieldwork.
Professor Alex Balch
Alex Balch is a Professor in Politics and International Relations.
His research focuses on the politics and policy of immigration and on efforts to combat forced labour and human trafficking. He has worked with a range of government and non-government organisations on research projects and regularly contributes to public debates. He is a member of the Forced Labour Monitoring Group (FLMG).
Dr Gemma Bird
Gemma Bird is as a Senior Lecturer in Politics.
Gemma joined the University of Liverpool in September 2017 after previously working at Aston University. Her previous work crosses the boundaries between political theory and international relations.
Her research interests have also developed into a second area, working on a project focusing on aesthetic approaches to international relations to help us to better understand, and respond to, the refugee crisis in Greece and Serbia.
Dr Birte Gippert
Birte Gippert is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations.
Birte's research focuses on global governance and international post-conflict peacebuilding. She is interested in local agency in peacebuilding operations, local legitimacy and resistance, and EU security and defence policy.
Her current research explores local-international interaction in peacebuilding, local reasons for resistance, and UN peacebuilding and authoritarianism. Birte has published on EU police reform in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, local legitimacy in peacebuilding, and legitimacy in conflict and war.
Professor Richard Gillespie
Richard Gillespie is an Honorary associate of the EWC.
His research interests are in European Foreign and Security Policy, Democratization in North Africa, The Union for the Mediterranean and Nationalism and Autonomy in Spain.
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