Dr Ivan Rubinić is a postdoctoral researcher in European integration at Studio Europa Maastricht, Maastricht University. He is working toward the advancement of political economy, economic equality, international trade, development economics and European integration. He is a passionate advocate of pluralism in economics with a research focus on European inequalities, welfare, and prosperity. He holds a PhD in economics from the School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana. He has been awarded the University of Ljubljana Recognition for the Best Study Achievements, the Danubius Young Scientist Award and the URPE Doctoral Fellowship. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Review of Economics and Economic Methodology. Rubinić is a political economy lecturer committed to exposing that excessive cross-country inequalities stand in the way of the European vision of shared prosperity, equality, and cohesiveness. In this regard, his theoretical and empirical efforts aim to overhaul ideological oppositions to render European integration sustainable and aligned with its founding values. His scholarly record is comprised of a number of publications, recognised by many renowned scientific outlets, including Palgrave Macmillan, Routledge and Oxford University Press.

 

Dr Alvaro Oleart is a postdoctoral researcher at Studio Europa Maastricht and the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of Maastricht University. He is the author of the book Framing TTIP in the European Public Spheres: Towards an Empowering Dissensus for EU Integration, published by the Palgrave series in European Political Sociology. Previously, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Horizon 2020 project 'RECONNECT: Reconciling Europe with its Citizens through Democracy and the Rule of Law'. He holds a PhD in political communication from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, and he is an active member of the Jean Monnet Network OpenEUDebate. The core of his academic research has been the interactive relationship between national and European politics, both from a public sphere and an institutional perspective. His main fields of interest are political communication, the European public sphere, the role of civil society in EU policymaking, transnational social movements, EU trade policy, populism and democracy in Europe and the analysis of discourse and narratives. His research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals, such as the Journal of Common Market Studies, the Journal of European Integration, the Journal of Contemporary European Research, Communication & Society and Politique Européenne.

 

Dr Robin van Kessel holds a PhD in comparative health policy with a focus on autism and inclusive education policy in the European Union. After his PhD, he joined Maastricht University as an assistant professor, where he started developing his research portfolio in digital health and expanded his skills in quantitative analysis and health economics. He also functioned as voluntary interim project manager for the WHO Global Health Workforce Network Youth Hub and joined the European Patients’ Forum as an adviser for the Gravitate Health project. Currently, van Kessel is affiliated with the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he performs research and consultancy tasks, as well as supervises PhD students in collaboration with both LSE and Maastricht University.

 

Rok Hrzic is a political epidemiologist at the Department of International Health at Maastricht University and an affiliated doctoral student with the International Max Planck Research School on Population, Health and Data Science. He is a physician by training and holds degrees in epidemiology and in Governance and Leadership in European Public Health from Maastricht University. His work focuses on novel data sources and analysis methods in public health to understand trends in population health and health system performance.

 

Julia Reinhold is a PhD candidate at UNU-MERIT and Maastricht University’s Institute for Transnational and Euregional cross border cooperation and Mobility (ITEM) and will start her position as postdoctoral researcher at Studio Europa Maastricht in November 2022. For her PhD, Reinhold studied the motivations of highly educated migrants to move to and remain in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine as well as their experiences living in this border region. Prior to starting her doctorate, she worked as a research officer for UNU-MERIT's Migration Group. In this position, she contributed to various research projects commissioned by European Union institutions, as well as international and development organisations. She obtained both her bachelor's degree in European Studies and her master's degree in Public Policy and Human Development at Maastricht University.