Professor Maria Popova has recently been appointed the Hiram Mills Chair in the Department of Political Science.听
The Chair was previously held by Professor Emeritus Elisabeth Gidengil, Canada's pre-eminent scholar on political behaviour, gender and diversity, and the media.听
" Professor Gidengil is a colleague I greatly admire," says Professor Popova. "I am honoured to follow in her footsteps."
Popova, who also serves as the Scientific Director of the , researches comparative judicial politics and post-Communist European democracies. Her latest book,听Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States,听was co-written with Oxana Shevel and was published by Polity Press in 2023.听
The Hiram Mills Chair is named after Major Hiram Mills, an American-born philanthropist who moved to Montr茅al at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. The Hiram Mills Chair is聽one of the oldest endowed chairs at 涩里番, historically supporting excellence in the humanities and social sciences.
"While Hiram Mills lived in a time when research on political issues聽wasn't聽recognized as political science, I am sure he would recognize that today political聽scientists' focus on democracy's ability to withstand domestic and international challenges is of crucial importance," says Popova. "Eastern European democracies experienced the first wave of backsliding and now聽we're聽seeing them throw out聽autocratizing聽incumbents and prevent the election of new authoritarian challengers one by one (Poland, Romania, Moldova, and now Hungary). The lessons from Eastern Europe will be useful for those researching democratic resistance and resilience in the US."
Professor Popova is currently working on a number of research projects that broadly relate to democracy and the rule of law in Eastern Europe, such as research on Ukraine's path towards EU accession, with a focus on anticorruption policy and judicial reform;聽 research on the trajectories of foreign-educated reformist politicians in Eastern Europe, such as Moldova's president Maia Sandu; as well as a project co-authored with Professor Dietlind Stolle, looking at the variations and sources of support for Ukraine and its resistance to Russian aggression among Europeans.听
Alongside other European colleagues, Popova is also part of two international teams of researchers聽trying to understand how democracies come back from autocratization- a particularly timely project now that Hungary's former Prime Minister, Viktor Orban has lost power in a landslide election after 16 years of "illiberal democracy"-building in Hungary.听
Learn more about Professor Popova's research and news .听 Follow Professor Popova on .听