Moderators

Prof. Mălina Ciocea (National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest)

Professor at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA), Bucharest, currently leading the Communication, Discourse, Public Issues Lab (CoDiPo) of the Centre for Research in Communication. Fields of research: public problems, memory of communism in young generations and the Romanian diaspora. Recently published: Mădroane, I. D., Ciocea, M., Cârlan, A. I., ’Diasporic media and counterpublics. Engaging anti-immigration stances in the UK‘, Journal of Language and Politics, 2020, vol. 19, is. 3, p. 457–478; Beciu, C., Ciocea, M., Mădroane, I.D., Cârlan, I.A. (eds.), Debating Migration as a Public Problem. National Publics and Transnational Social Fields, New York, Peter Lang, 2018.

Prof. Malkhaz Toria (Ilia State University)

Associate Professor of History and Director of the Memory Study Centre in the Caucasus at Ilia State University (Tbilisi, Georgia). Member of the ENRS Academic Council since 2019. Fields of research: history of medieval and modern Georgian historiography, ethnic processes during the Tsarist and Soviet periods, the role of historical discourse and memory politics in regional conflicts in Georgia, and constructing dividing boundaries and politics of exclusion in the breakaway regions of contemporary Georgia. Recently published: ‘Historical debates and the Likhni declaration as a decisive event in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict‘, in Hubertus Jahn, Identities and Representations in Georgia from the 19th Century to the Present, Berlin-Boston, De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2020, p. 29–38;’Between Traditional and Modern Museology: Exhibiting National History in the Museum of Georgia‘, in Joyce Apsel and Amy Sodaro (eds.); Museums and Sites of Persuasion. Politics, Memory and Human Rights, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019, p. 39–55.

Panelists

Dr Maria Snegovaya (Kellogg Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Virginia Tech)

PhD in Political Science from Columbia University. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kellogg Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Virginia Tech, a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University, and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Atlantic Council. She specializes in comparative politics, foreign policy, and statistical methods. Fields of research: democratic backsliding in East-Central Europe and Russia’s domestic and foreign policy. Her other research results and analyses have appeared in policy and peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Democracy, Post-Soviet Affairs, Politics and Governance and The Washington Post‘s political science blog The Monkey Cage. Her research has been referenced in such press outlets as The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Economist, and Foreign Policy. She is frequently invited to give talks at U.S. universities and research centres. Recently published: ’Fellow travellers or Trojan horses? Similarities across pro-Russian parties’ electorates in Europe‘, Party Politics, March 2021, p. 1–10 and ‘How ex-Communist left parties reformed and lost‘, West European Politics, February 2021, p. 1–28.

Dr Joel Breakstone (Graduate School of Education at Stanford University)

PhD, Director of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University (USA), related to Stanford History Education Group and Stanford Graduate School of Education. Fields of research: digital literacy, civic education and history education. Recent publication: Breakstone, J., Smith, M., Connors, P., Ortega, T., Kerr, D., & Wineburg, S., ‘Lateral reading: College students learn to critically evaluate internet sources in an online course‘, Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, February 2021, vol. 2, is. 1, p. 1–17.

Dr Eric Langenbacher (Georgetown University)

Teaching Professor and Director of the Honors Program in the Department of Government, at Georgetown University, where he completed his PhD in 2002. Since July 2019, also Senior Fellow and Director of the Society, Culture and Politics Program at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies in Washington, D.C. He is also Managing Editor of German Politics and Society seated in Georgetown’s BMW Center for German and European Studies. Fields of research: comparative politics, memory studies, German politics and international affairs. Recently published: Twilight of the Merkel Era: Power and Politics in Germany after the 2017 Bundestag Election, New York-Oxford, Berghahn Books, 2019, with Bill Niven and Ruth Wittlinger (eds.); Dynamics of Memory and Identity in Contemporary Europe, London-New York, Berghahn Books, 2015.

Prof. Joanna Wojdon (University of Wrocław)

Associate Professor at the Institute of History, University of Wrocław, Chair of the Department of Methodology of Teaching History and Civic Education. Fields of research: methodology of teaching history, public history, history of education under communism (especially in textbook research) and the history of Polish Americans after the Second World War. Recently published: Communist Propaganda School. The World of the Reading Primers from the Soviet Bloc, 1949–1989, Routledge, 2021; Textbooks as Propaganda. Poland under Communist Rule. 1944–1989, Routledge, 2018.