Professor Erika Harris PhD., BA

Personal Statement

Erika joined Politics department in 2004. She was Head of Department 2010-14 and was promoted to Professor in 2013. In 2017 she was awarded the named chair, the Bowes Chair in Politics. She is internationally recognized as an expert on studies of nations and nationalism generally, but specifically in Central Europe, post- Soviet space and the Balkans. Within this general area, her research increasingly focuses on the impact of ethnicity on geopolitics , and on identity construction in contemporary European states.
She has published: Nationalism Theories and Cases, Edinburgh University Press, 2009; Democracy in New Europe (with Christopher Lord), Palgrave Macmillan, 2006; Nationalism and Democratisation Politics of Slovakia and Slovenia, Ashgate 2002 and re-published by Routledge in 2018. Currently, she is working on her next book The Dilemma of Nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe (Bristol University Press in 2023). She has published articles in journals such as Europe-Asia Studies, East European Politics, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics and others.

PhD SUPERVISION
Erika is interested to hear from potential PhDs and in supervising topics in the areas of:
nationalism studies, ethnic politics, post-communist democratisation and Europeanisation processes, and minority protection.
For more detail of her research interests see under 'Research'.
Currently she is primary supervisor on the following theses: Identity and Context: the case of Herzegovina; Bordes and historical legacies; the journey of a postcolonial subject; Internally Displaced Persons in Ukraine in the Context of International Political Discourse; State-youth power relations explored through mundane everyday life in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As a director of the Europe and the World Centre ( EWC) she is very involved in public engagement through conferences and debates that are organized by the Centre. She provides regular commentaries to British and international press on the relationship between the UK and the European Union. See the Europe and the World Centre website. https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/europe-and-the-world/.

Prizes or Honours

• Bowes Chair in Politics (University of Liverpool, 2017)
• Commended for the 'Outstanding Contribution to Civic Engegament' University Success Award (2016)
• Research Grant (British Academy, 2010)
• Research Grant (The British Academy, 2005)

Other Personal Distinctions

• Member of Brexit Policy Panel (The UK in a Changing Europe, 2018 - 2020)
• Evaluation Board EU funding for Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts (Slovak Academy of Sciences, 2017)
• Expert Panel Accreditation of Political Sciences (Croatian Government Agency for Science and Education, 2014)
• Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (ESRC, 2002)