Maria Popova

Candidate for Member at Large, 2019

Maria Popova is Jean Monnet Chair and Associate Professor of Political Science at McGill University in Montreal. She holds a BA in Spanish Literature and Government from Dartmouth College and a PhD in Government from Harvard University. She has lived and conducted research across Eastern Europe and Eurasia and its various regime incarnations—from growing up in Bulgaria before 1989, through interviewing judges and lawyers in Russia and Ukraine for dissertation research in the 2000s, to her current attempt to disentangle real from fake anti-corruption efforts in Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine. Popova’s work explores the intersection of politics and law in the region, specifically the rule of law, judicial reform, political corruption, populist parties, and legal repression of dissent. Popova’s book, Politicized Justice in Emerging Democracies (Cambridge UP, 2012), won the American Association for Ukrainian Studies prize for best book in the fields of Ukrainian history, politics, language, literature and culture. Other work appears in Europe-Asia Studies, Problems of Post-Communism, Journal of East European Law, and Daedalus. Popova’s research is broadly interdisciplinary and has made it into volumes edited by historians (Beyond Mosque, Church and State: Alternative Narratives of the Nation in the Balkans, CEU Press, 2016) and sociologists (A Sociology of Justice in Russia, Cambridge UP, 2018). As a literature major and a published, but, alas, mediocre poet, Popova always enjoys the full ASEEES program, beyond the politics-focused panels. A strong believer in interdisciplinarity and area studies, she would be honored to contribute to ASEEES’ mission by serving on the Board.