I hold the Generali Endowed Chair in European Policies and am a Professor of Political Science at Bocconi University. I also serve as the President of the Institute of European Policy Making @ Bocconi University and co-chair Bocconi’s International Advisory Council. I received several academic distinctions and awards, including an Honorary Professorship at Queen’s University Belfast.
Before moving to Bocconi, I held professorships at the University of Oxford, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and visiting posts at UCLA and the University of Vienna. I serve as the Chair of the Advisory Board of the WZB Berlin, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Hertie School, Member of the Advisory Board of the Juan March Institute at Carlos II University, and Member of the European Integration Committee of the Dutch Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs. I also act as an academic advisor to the Bertelsmann Foundation and Social Europe. For my service to society, I was selected a Young Global Leader in the World Economic Forum in 2013.
In my academic work, I study how international cooperation to deal with key global challenges, such as governance, migration or climate, interacts with domestic political constraints. My work contributes to our understanding of the rise of populism and the far right, political polarization and fragmentation, public service provision and corruption. My recent research, funded through the European Research Council, focuses on the politics of public service provision, specifically the relationship between public service delivery and the rise of the far right. A core insight from this project has been to reveal how the far right exploits voter discontent with crumbling public service provision. I regularly disseminate my research expertise through commentary, in popular outlets such a the Financial Times, The Guardian, Politico or Foreign Affairs.
Over the course of my career, I have published three books and a textbook. My most recent book, Money Flows: The Political Consequences of Migrant Remittances (Oxford University Press, 2024), written with David Doyle, Katerina Tertytchnaya and Hector Solaz, highlights the unintended, and even unexpected political consequences of remittance flows in Central Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. My book Euroscepticism and the Future of European integration (Oxford University Press) received the European Union Studies Association Best Book in EU Studies Award, and was listed in the Financial Times top-5 books to read about Europe’s future. My second book Political Entrepreneurs: The Rise of Challenger Parties in Europe, co-authored with Sara Hobolt, was published with Princeton University Press in 2020. It was featured in the Washington Post and Politico. Finally, my book Foundations of European Politics: A Comparative Approach (Oxford University Press), co-authored with Sara Hobolt, Sven-Oliver Proksch and Jonathan Slapin, is an unique textbook presenting students with a coherent analytic approach that can be used to understand both national and supranational policy-making in Europe.