Before joining the University of Malta, I was a postdoc at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, a postdoc at KU Leuven and an adjunct professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. I obtained my PhD in Politics and International Studies from the Université libre de Bruxelles and the University of Warwick. Prior to embarking on my doctoral research, I completed degrees in International Relations and European Politics at Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics.
My main research interests are the European Union's external relations, with a special focus on the EU's Eastern and Southern neighbourhoods, as well as these two regions' history and politics. I am especially interested in democratisation and autocratisation processes, and focus on corresponding developments in Georgia and Tunisia in particular.
In my previous positions, I have taught a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses on the European Union, comparative regionalism as well as Middle Eastern history and politics. My research is complemented by non-academic writings that have appeared in various media outlets including POLITICO Europe, The Guardian and Der Spiegel.
