Alexandra Liebich

Alexandra is a PhD candidate in Comparative Politics & International Relations. She is fascinated by how states and societies deal with the diversity inherent within them (i.e. cultural, ethnic, linguistic diversity); and how diversity is “managed” (or mismanaged) in different domains and institutions -- particularly in education, government, and media. In other words, diversity is a reality in the contemporary world - how do individuals, groups, organizations, and countries deal with this? Both at the level of elite politics and in everyday life?

Alexandra researches nationalism, ethnicity, minority-state (and inter-ethnic) relations, institutional design, the politics of education, and conflict management in divided societies. She also studies the politics and history of Central & Eastern Europe. Broadly, her regional expertise encompasses post-communist Europe and the post-Soviet space.
Her thesis project is a comparative analysis of education policy & practice in post-communist Europe, with a focus on minority education. She spent several months in Eastern Europe from 2017-18 conducting fieldwork and collecting data for her doctoral thesis. She will return to the region for further research later this year.

Alexandra has taught courses on Nationalism, the Politics of Ethnicity, and Comparative Politics. She is an Emerging Scholar with the Centre for the Study of Democracy & Diversity, and a Researcher with the Divided Cities collaborative project at Queen’s. She is also a CGS Bombardier Scholar and a EUSA (European Union Studies Association) Doctoral Fellow.