Executive team 

Toma Burean – Director/Research Fellow

 

Toma Burean is a Lecturer at the Political Science Department, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca. He obtained a Phd in 2014 at the Postuniveristary School of Social Science, Polish Academy of Science. He graduated a Master course of Political Science at CEU, Budapest. His domains of interest are politics, political behaviour, political attitudes of young people and migration. 

ANATOLIE COȘCIUG  – Vice-Director/Research Fellow

Dr. Anatolie Coșciug este director adjunct la Centrul pentru Studiul Comparat al Migrației și cadru didactic al Universității „Lucian Blaga” din Sibiu și a Universității „Babeș-Bolyai” din Cluj-Napoca. Anatolie este interesat de teme precum migrația internațională, ajutor umanitar, politici publice, sau schimbare socială și este implicat în proiecte de cercetare, consultanță și training cu multiple universități, organizații internaționale și instituții publice la nivel internațional, național și local. Anatolie a publicat articole, capitole de carte și cărți în unele dintre cele mai importante edituri din domeniul științelor sociale și a coordonat o serie de rapoarte de cercetare și numere speciale.  

OVIDIU OLTEAN – Secretary/Research Fellow

Ovidiu Oltean is a member of the Centre for Comparative Migration Studies, working as an Assistant Lecturer in the Political Science Department, Babeș -Bolyai University. He holds a PhD in Sociology, with a dissertation on migration, ethnic identity, and social change in Romania, obtained from the Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca (2021). His research activity focuses on the study of migration, identity changes, inclusion and integration policies, transnational political participation, and economic transformations. He has recently published in BMC Public Health, Social Change Review, Central and Eastern European Migration Review and in several collective volumes tackling migration and social change at Anthem Press, ISPMN Publishing House, Tritonic, Cluj University Press and Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen

Andreea Vornicu – Censor/Research Fellow 

Andreea Vornicu is a PhD Student in Political Science at Babeș-Bolyai University. She graduated Law College and Journslism at the College of Political , Administrative and Communication Science, and has a Masters Degree in International Development. Her research interests include:  intitutional design and reconstruction of post-conflict countries, rule of law and restorative processes of justice and transition.

Research Team

Andriana Cosciug – Project Manager / Research Fellow

Andriana has a BA in Political Sciences and a MA in International Development, both at Babeș-Bolyai University. She works as an Romanian language and cultural orientation teacher for immigrants living in Cluj-Napoca at the League for the Defense of Human Rights, Cluj branch. She worked as project manager at Societatea Studențească de Știinte Politice and Rațiu Democracy Centre. Her topic interests are human rights, inclusion of immigrants and the social involvement of youth in their society. 

Livia Pogan – Research Fellow

Livia Pogan is currently a Teaching Assistant at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, holding a PhD in Sociology (2017). She also studied Law and Psychology (BA&MA) and has previous practical experience as a Human Resources psychologist. Her research interests were focused on work-life balance, organizational learning, development and change, work behavior and other work-related aspects and are reflected in papers published in scientific journals or presented at national and international conferences. 

Andreea Mercea – Project Manager / Research Fellow

Andreea Mercea has a background in Legal studies and Management of Non-profit Organization. She has proven experience in coordinating projects with the Romanian Peace Institute – PATRIR, for the integration of refugees in Romania by strengthening the cooperation at the local level and by facilitating activities designed to support socio-cultural orientation and integration. Andreea has experience in legal assistance in situations of human rights violations, advocacy, and raising awareness campaigns in the Equality and Human Rights Action Centre Association and Centre for Legal Studies.

Octavian Bernanz – Research Fellow

Bernaz Octavian graduated in Political Science at the College of Political, Administrative, and Communication Sciences, Babeș-Bolyai University. He is currently a junior researcher at the Romanian Center for Comparative Migration Research with experience in social research, international migration, refugees, humanitarian aid, and media literacy.

Alexandra Porumbescu – Research Fellow

Viktoriia Kyrychenko – Research Fellow

Colleagues involved in previous projects

Alin Croitoru – Research Fellow 

Alin Croitoru holds a PhD in Sociology (University of Bucharest, 2013) and he is a lecturer at the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (since 2014). He participated as a researcher in multiple national and international research projects focused on various topics (e.g. HORIZON 2020 – YMOBILITY, PN2 – MIGLIFE, FP7 – TEMPER, FP7 – EUCROSS). He has experience with qualitative and quantitative analysis of social data and published on topics linked to international migration, entrepreneurship and rural studies. 

GABRIEL BĂDESCU – Research Fellow 

Gabriel Bădescu is an university professour, director of the Center for the Study of Democracy and member of the Political Science Department at Babeș-Bolyai University. He is licensed in Mathematics and Sociology, has a PhD in Sociology, had a scholarship at  Fulbright la University of Maryland, College Park and followed specializations in social statistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Between 2009 and 2010 he coordinated the Agency for Governmental Strategies, and between 2011 and 2013 he was a member of the national Council of Scientific Research. His later publications include themes of socialisation, politics, social capital, civil society, labour migration and scientometry. Among his academic interests, themes as democratic transitions in Eastern Europe, social capital, political and social participation in a compared perspective, social inequality, labour migration, quantitative/calitative methods of research can be found.

 Bogdan Radu – Research Fellow

Bogdan Radu received his MA in European politics from the University of Manchester (MA) and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine, USA, in 2007. His research interests revolve around issues interconnecting religion and politics. He conducted research on religious values and political beliefs, for both adults and the youth, focusing on the relationships between religiosity and religious participation on the one hand, and political participation and support for democracy on the other hand. More recently, Bogdan became interested in studying the concept of public opinion in the realm of international governance, especially focusing on international development. He is committed to interdisciplinary approaches and the combined use of empirical and interpretive methods. He also teaches courses iof Introduction in International Relations and Theories of International Relations, and a course of Economical and Democratic Transition in Taiwan at the College of Political, Administrative and Communication Science. Bogdan Radu is also responsible for the Maters Degree program of International Development, which started in 2010. 

Giorgiana Găvruş – Research Fellow 

 Georgiana Găvruș is a Phd candidate in the Political Science Department at Babes-Bolyai University. Her thesis explores the relationship between religion and forced migration in the European context.She holds a BA in Psychology and an MPA in NGO Management at the same university. For her Master Thesis she researched the volunteer’s motivation to work amongst refugees in Europe. Her academic interests are migration, social networks and religion. Before enrolling in the MPA program, she spent six years in Afghanistan working in education and development.

Marius Matichescu – Research Fellow

Lector in the Sociology Department, he got his Licentiate degree in sociology at the West University in Timișoara, and his Masters Degree and Phd at Montpellier 3 University, France. Among his fields of scientific interest are social integration of immigrants and political representation. Also, he teaches the courses of Social integration and Techniques of negotiation at the Sociology and Psychology College, West University, Timișoara. 

Giorgian Guțoiu – Research Fellow

Giorgian Guțoiu is a Teaching Assistant at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu. Since 2019 he holds a PhD in Political Sciences from the University of Bucharest with a thesis on urban electoral geography of Bucharest. His main areas of interest are in political behavior, urban sociology and human geography.

Mara Birou – Research Fellow

Mara Birou is coordinator of socio-educational and cultural activities within the SIM_CIS project – „Integrated services for migrants – Intercultural and Solidarity Communities”, implemented by the League for the Defense of Human Rights, Cluj branch and political scientist at Babeș-Bolyai University. She holds a bachelor and master degree in Political Science from UBB Cluj. Her academic interests focus on migration, political participation, political behavior and electoral system. Her recent research also includes topics related to social marginalization, living conditions, the vulnerable consumer and energy poverty. 

Astrid Hamberger – Research Fellow 

Astrid Hamberger holds a BA and MA from the University of Copenhagen and a PhD from the University of Bucharest, specializing in international migration and immigrant integration. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Transilvania Brasov, where she teaches two courses on international migration. With extensive practical and academic experience in these fields, she has coordinated several EU-funded and other donor-funded projects focusing on migration, integration, and humanitarian assistance. Astrid is also the founder and coordinator of the Migrant Integration Center in the city of Brasov.

Oana Marchis – Project Manager / Research Fellow 

With an educational background in psychology, Oana has  worked since 2013 as a Project Manager  for the non-governmental sector in Romania, on international projects tackling social and educational aspects, such as human trafficking, migration, active citizenship, youth personal development and mental health. In addition, Oana has experience in providing consultancy in human resources processes design and implementation to support business execution, individual and group assessment and counselling, training and soft skills development. She is passionate about mental health, antropology, education and human rights.

Ionela Racatău – Project Manager / Research Fellow 

Raluca Drob – Project Manager / Research Fellow  

Affiliated researchers 

Stefánia Toma

Stefánia Toma is a researcher at the Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities. Since March 2020 she is a research fellow of the HOMING: The Home-Migration Nexus, an ERC project hosted by University of Trento. She is also a PhD student at the Sociology Doctoral School of the Babeș-Bolyai University. Her area of interest includes anthropology of ethnic minorities and ethnic relations, migration, economic anthropology and sociology of education.  

László Fosztó  

László Fosztó is a social anthropologist working as senior researcher at the Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities in Cluj-Napoca. His main research interest includes approaches to ethnicity, nationalism, migration and the intersections of anthropology of religion and economic anthropology. He served as Secretary for the European Academic Network on Romani Studies a joint initiative of the European Commission and Council of Europe between 2011 and 2015. After the project was finalized he continues as voluntary administrator of the Network webpage and email-list.

Volunteers

Alexandra Chirigut – Research Assistant

Monica Iosep – Research Assistant