معرفی
Natasha Wunsch is Professor of European Studies and co-director of the Centre for European Studies at the University of Fribourg. She previously held positions as Assistant Professor of Political Science/European Integration at Sciences Po Paris and Senior Researcher at ETH Zurich. She is currently Chair of the ECPR Standing Group on the European Union and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (2022–2023).
Her education includes a PhD from University College London (2016) and a habilitation from ETH Zurich (2023). She holds a dual Master’s degree in European Studies and Political Science from Sciences Po Paris and the Free University of Berlin.
Wunsch's research lies at the intersection of European and comparative politics, focusing on democratic backsliding, European integration, EU enlargement, and political mobilization in the post-communist space. She investigates how democratic attitudes shape political behavior in contexts of democratic erosion, particularly in Poland and Hungary. Her work also explores the impact of populist radical right parties on EU enlargement and integration processes.
The recent publications highlight a strong trend in analyzing democratic regression, voter responses to authoritarianism, and institutional contestation within the European Parliament. Her work combines qualitative and quantitative methods, often employing comparative case studies and discourse analysis, with a geographical focus on Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans.
- SNSF Ambizione Fellow
- Visiting Fellow at Harvard University
- Visiting Fellow at University of Oxford
Wunsch has been actively involved in advising and leading research projects, including an Ambizione-funded project on citizens’ democratic attitudes and democratic erosion. She serves on the Academic Advisory Committee of the German Council on Foreign Relations and the Academic Advisory Board of the Institute for European Politics. She is also a member of the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group, contributing to policy-relevant research.
She is affiliated with the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE) at Sciences Po and the European Politics Group at ETH Zurich, where she conducted significant research prior to her current professorship.
