Simona Guerra

My main research interest is in attitudes towards European integration and citizens' perceptions of the EU and its institutions, in particular in candidate countries in the post-Communist region and Western Balkans. I further examine these themes in the European Parties Election & Referendums Network.

I am generally interested in the history and politics of EU integration; in the impact of integration on the accession states and the new balance in the enlarged EU. That is a theme of the network ‘Assessing Accession’.

Analyses on religion and politics have focused on the process of secularisation and indicated a lack of comparative studies on religion as a social and political actor. In my analysis I investigate the role of the Church in the public life and answer 'if', 'when' and 'how' it strategically chooses to become a Eurosceptic political actor. The comparative perspective on Central and Eastern European countries offers a contribution to the literature on the economics of religion, the politics of the Catholic Churches in post-communist Europe, and Euroscepticism.

Following the award of the Loughborough University SPG Seedcorn Grant 2011 (Activity title: Governance, Corruption and Anti-Corruption Policies: The EU and members states, candidate and third countries.), I examine how the EU frames its policies in relation to corruption in current member states, candidate and third countries. This study aims to contribute towards this task by a novel focus on the role of the EU within debates which draws from both the political science literature on governance and the EU and an emerging critical geography and critical management studies literature on global anti-corruption initiatives in order to provide an original inter-disciplinary perspective on the issue (with Dr Ed Brown, Department of Geography, Loughborough University).