What Our Alumni Say

"What Our Alumni Say" is a forum for alumni to share their stories about the impact CEU Department of Political Science has had and continues to have on all of our lives.
See above to meet some of your fellow alums. Want to share yours? Write us!

Maria Stanisheva (MA '03)

January 15, 2020

Film director, producer and founder of ANIMADOCS

"The MA program was unique as it was specifically designed for the change that was happening in Central and Eastern Europe at that point in time and it gave me an incredible insight into critical thinking and contemporary political thought."

https://alumni.ceu.edu/article/2017-10-18/her-own-words-maria-stanisheva

Ioana Petre (MA '11, PhD '16)

January 6, 2020

Policy Officer at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation

Ivan Vukovic (PhD '14)

December 13, 2019

Mayor of Podgorica, Montenegro 

Chirayu Thakkar (MA '19)

December 11, 2019

Manager to a Member of Parliament in India

"I am Chirayu Thakkar, a recent graduate from the CEU Political Science Department. Before coming to CEU, I read a master’s degree in Modern South Asian Studies at the University of Oxford. Currently, I am working as a manager to a Member of Parliament in India, looking after his administrative, political, and legislative affairs. I am also working as a consultant for various regional governments and NGOs that design projects aimed at bringing youth closer to governance.

Akop Gabrielyan (MA '14)

February 25, 2019

Executive Assistant to Founder & CEO at Teach For Armenia Foundation "Today I visited CEU, where a Master's degree was received some years ago. Referring to the years of my study here, I always remember these years with satisfaction and the feeling of pride, as I didn't betrayed my views, remained loyal to the idea of academic impartiality..."

Hani Sulastri Hamid & Marko Kukec (MA '13)

February 12, 2019

Hani is Planning, Learning and Accountability Coordinator at Rikolto Indonesia & Marko is Post-doctoral researcher at Helmut Schmidt Universität, Hamburg "When we first met as colleagues at the Department of Political Science, we could not have imagined how profoundly the year spent at the CEU will shape our professional and private lives."

Bruno Castanho Silva (PhD '17)

January 8, 2019

Post-doctoral researcher, Cologne Center for Comparative Politics, University of Cologne "Pursuing a PhD in political science at CEU was one of the best decisions I took in my academic career. The department is incredibly diverse in both methodological and substantive interests, with world class scholars."

Gergo Zavecz (MA '11, PhD '17)

December 17, 2018

Junior Research Fellow, Central Bank of Hungary "My time at CEU was remarkable in so many aspects: I was a CEU student when I did my first empirical research, when I first received a research grant, when I first published in a journal, when I was first asked to write a book chapter..."

Imre Szabo (MA '10, PhD '16)

December 4, 2018

Post-doctoral fellow at University College Dublin "The single best decision in my professional life was when I applied to CEU’s Political Science MA program in 2009. I had an experience at CEU that shaped who I am in fundamental ways. I have learnt how to process complex information about the functioning of political systems and societies."

Bogdana Buzarnescu (MA '10)

November 28, 2018

Principal Assistant - Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe "CEU, and in particular, it’s political science department, has been an enriching and truly formative period for me. Firstly, it has been a year of intensely demanding yet intellectually stimulating studies."