Maria Popova – Scientific director (McGill)

Maria Popova (PhD, Harvard) is an Associate Professor of Political Science at McGill University. She held the Jean Monnet Chair “Europe and the Rule of Law” in 2017-2021. Her work focuses on rule of law and democracy in the post-Communist region. Her award-winning book Politicized Justice in Emerging Democracies (Cambridge UP, 2012) examines the weaponization of law to manipulate elections and control the media and the obstacles to judicial independence in Russia and Ukraine in the late-1990s-early 2000s. Her recent work has focused on judicial reform in Ukraine, rule of law and protest radicalization, the politics of corruption prosecutions across Eastern Europe, and the links between conspiracies, corruption, and illiberalism. Her new book (co-authored with Oxana Shevel), entitled “Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States” examines the root causes of the Russo-Ukrainian war and is scheduled for release in fall 2023.