EDUCATION

Ph.D. in Political Science. University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, USA, 18 December 2007.
Fields: Comparative Politics and Research Methods
Dissertation: “When Does the Law Rule? The Politics of Banking Sector Legal Reform in the Post-Communist Region after 1989”
Dissertation committee: Milada Anna Vachudova (chair), Liesbet Hooghe, Robert Jenkins, Graeme Robertson, John Stephens, Georg Vanberg

M.A. in Political Science. University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, 16 August 2004.
Thesis: “The Road to Europe: Legacies, Strategies, Norms and the Development of the Rule of Law in Hungary and Bulgaria”

B.A. American University in Bulgaria, 12 May 2002.
Major: Political Science – International Relations
Minors: Contemporary European Studies, Philosophy

EMPLOYMENT

Assistant Professor. Department of Political Science, Maastricht University, The Netherlands, September 2008 – Present.
Post-doctoral researcher. Department of Political Science, Institute for Advanced Studies – Vienna, Austria, March – August 2008.

PROFESSIONAL AND TEACHING INTERESTS

Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Economy, Research Methods, Policy Making and Implementation, Democratization, European Union, Central and Eastern Europe

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Instructor, Comparative Politics, The EU Budget, Research Design, Qualitative Methods, Formal Analysis, Quantitative Data Analysis teaching modules, Maastricht University, September 2008 – Present.

Instructor, Comparative Politics of Southeast Europe and Introduction to Political Science, American University in Bulgaria, Fall 2005.

Instructor, Politics of East Central Europe, UNC-Chapel Hill, Fall 2004, Spring 2005.

Teaching assistant, European Politics, UNC-Chapel Hill, Fall 2003, Spring 2004, Fall 2007.

HONORS AND AWARDS

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Teaching Excellence Award, Maastricht University, June 2011.