Mitchell Orenstein
Director
Mitchell A. Orenstein is Director of the European Studies Institute, Professor of Russian and East European Studies and Political Science and Senior Fellow at Foreign Policy Research Institute. His sole-authored and co-authored works on the political economy and international affairs of Central and Eastern Europe have won numerous prizes.
Advisory Council
Osman Balkan
Osman Balkan is Associate Director of the Huntsman Program in International Studies & Business and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the politics of migration, race, and collective memory in Europe and the Middle East.
Kristen R. Ghodsee
Kristen R. Ghodsee is an award-winning author and professor and chair of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She also serves as a member on the graduate groups of Anthropology and Comparative Literature. Ghodsee’s articles and essays have been translated into over twenty-five languages and have appeared in publications such as Dissent, Foreign Affairs, Jacobin, The Baffler, The New Republic, Quartz, NBC Think, The Lancet, Project Syndicate, Le Monde Diplomatique, Die Tageszeitung, The Washington Post, and the New York Times.
Abigail Lewis
Abigail Lewis is Executive Director of the Council for European Studies, a leading national association for European studies based at Temple University in Philadelphia. Prior to joining Council for European Studies, she managed the European Studies Minor and European Union studies and study abroad programs at University of Notre Dame. She is a scholar of Modern European History with experience in academic program management, advising, and curriculum development.
Julia Lynch
Julia Lynch is Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania and co-director of the Lauder Institute. She serves on the advisory boards of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, the European Studies Institute, the Italian Studies Program, and the Bioethics minor. Her research focuses on the politics of public health, social policy and inequality in the rich democracies, particularly western Europe.
Philip M. Nichols
Philip M. Nichols is Joseph Kolodny Professor of Social Responsibility in Business and Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics at the Wharton School. He has conducted fieldwork in or has worked with organizations in more than twenty countries on issues of corruption control or business development, including several countries in the former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe.
Brendan O’Leary
Brendan O’Leary BA (Oxon), MA UPenn (hon), PhD (LSE), DArts (UCC, hon), FRSA, MRIA (hon), is an Irish, European Union, and US citizen, and since 2003 the Lauder Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author, co- author, and co-editor of thirty books and collections, and the author or co-author of hundreds of articles or chapters in peer-reviewed journals, university presses, encyclopedia articles, and other forms of publication, including op-eds.
Barbie Zelizer
Barbie Zelizer is the Raymond Williams Professor of Communication and Director of the Center for Media at Risk at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. A former journalist, Zelizer is known for her work on journalism, culture, memory, and images, particularly in times of crisis.
Student Researchers
Rachel Bina
Rachel Bina is a senior in the Huntsman Program, studying Business with a concentration in Operations, Information, and Decisions at the Wharton School, and International Studies with a minor in Russian at the College of Arts and Sciences. As part of the European Studies Institute, she is investigating the effects of shifting European energy policy and market dynamics on fossil fuel companies’ green transition strategies in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Rachel’s broader interests lie in the energy transition and climate change, and she is actively involved in research projects on critical infrastructure protection, applying decision theory to climate policy selection, and examining public deliberations on climate policy.
Autumn Cortright
Autumn Cortright is a senior in Arts and Sciences, majoring in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE) and Classical Studies. With the European Studies Institute, she is researching the trajectory of Polish public opinion regarding Ukrainian refugees, focusing specifically on the impact of Russian disinformation. Outside of classes and research, she is the Principal Viola of the Penn Symphony Orchestra, teaches after-school music programs in West Philadelphia, and leads Appalachian expeditions as the senior coordinator of PennQuest.
Axel D’Amelio
Axel D’Amelio is a senior in the College dual majoring in International Relations and Philosophy. In addition to being a European Studies Institute researcher, Axel currently works at the Hudson Institute and plays for Penn’s Men’s Club Hockey team. His research project focuses on small-state security and how emerging technology is increasing small states’ resilience against greater powers.
Edward Gibson
Edward Gibson is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in International Relations and Russian & Eastern European Studies. He is interested in transatlantic affairs, the Balkans, and EU enlargement. His thesis research focuses on why some post-communist states pursue Atlanticist and pro-European foreign policies.
Jean-Claude Lane
Jean-Claude is a Senior from Nice, France. He is studying Political Science and PPE with concentrations in International Relations and Globalization. His research project focuses on the effectiveness of EU policies implemented in the wake of the war in Ukraine in promoting defense cooperation amongst member states.
Henry McDaniel
Henry McDaniel is pursuing a B.A. in Russian and East European Studies as well as Diplomatic History. He is exploring escalation of Russian hybrid warfare and its connections to democratic backsliding in the Western Balkans. In addition to the European Studies Institute, McDaniel is a Perry World House Student Fellow and a Penn Abroad Leader.
Michal Wyrebkowski
Michal Wyrebkowski is a senior at the Wharton School, majoring in Finance and Business Analytics. He conducts research on the new gas geo-economics in Europe with the European Studies Institute, focusing on the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Michal is also a non-resident Rethink.CEE fellow at the German Marshall Fund, studying the withdrawal of Central and Eastern European companies from Russia, and a student fellow at Perry World House. Outside of class, he is actively involved in the Philomathean Society, a literary society, where he has organized lectures featuring distinguished speakers on campus.