1
DR. SHERRILL LEA STROSCHEIN
Senior Lecturer in Politics
Director, MSc (Master’s) in Democracy and Comparative Politics
Department of Political Science /
School of Public Policy
Political Science / School of Public Policy
University College London
29/31 Tavistock Square +44 (0) 20 7679 4989
London WC1H 9QU Twitter: @sstroschein2
United Kingdom
EDUCATION
2000Ph.D. in Political Science, ColumbiaUniversity
Comparative Politics and International Relations, some Political Theory and Economics
1994Master of International Affairs, Columbia University
Concentration: International Political Economy
1994Institute Certificate, Institute on East Central Europe, Columbia University
1991B.A. Magna Cum Laude in Political Science, Amherst College
CITIZENSHIP
US and UK citizen
EXPERIENCE
University College London
Department of Political Science / School of Public Policy
2005-PresentSenior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Politics and Director of Master’s Program in Democracy and Comparative Politics.
Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies
2003-05Academy Scholar.Completion of “Contention and Coexistence” book manuscript as well
as various article manuscripts; work on “Ethnicity and Governance” book manuscript.
Department of Political Science, Ohio University, on leave, 2003-2005
2001-2005;Assistant Professor. Courses included Politics of East Central Europe, Nationalism and
On leave Ethnic Conflict, and undergraduate lecture courses and graduate seminars in both
2003-2005Comparative Politics and International Relations.
Institute on Race and Social Division, Boston University
2000-2001Research Fellow. Produced articles for publication on non-violent ethnic politics in mixed states. Taught Economics and Politics of Racial Inequality in the United States, jointly listed between the departments of Economics and Political Science.
Institute for Local Government Administration and Rural Development, Ohio University
Summer 2000Faculty Fellow. Explored potential funding sources for cooperative projects on public administration training in rural areas of East Central Europe.
Institute on East Central Europe, Columbia University
1991-2000Graduate Research Assistant. Organized graduate student conferences in 1996 and 1999, copy-edited resulting edited volumes; coordinated various Institute events.
Adjunct Lecturer, Hunter College, New York
Fall, 1999Lecturer. Taught Government and Politics in Eastern Europe.
The Carpathian Euroregion, Uzhhorod, Ukraine
Summer, 1995Research Intern. Prepared materials for a new secretariat office while researching the organization’s operations.
American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech and Slovak Republics, Prague, Czech Republic
Summer, 1993Summer Associate. Researched and prepared business articles, translated meetings and materials.
PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS
SINGLE-AUTHORED:
Ethnic Struggle, Coexistence, and Democratization in Eastern Europe
Cambridge University Press, July 2012, softcover version published in 2014. Recipient of 1) honorable mention for the International Studies Association’s (ISA) section on Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration Studies, Distinguished Book Award, 2014, and 2) honorable mention for the 2013 Joseph Rothschild Book Prize, Association of the Study of Nationalities (ASN).
This book uses event analysis to show how contention helped forge common rules and institutions during the democratic transition in these mixed states – where minority Hungarians and ethnic majorities disagree on language policy, local government / public administration structure, and public symbols:
A summary of some of the book’s arguments from a presentation at LSEE appears at:
Symposium on the book, with commentary by Mark Beissinger, Zsuzsa Csergo, Elise Giuliano, Myra Waterbury, and my author response. “Book Symposium: Ethnic Struggle, Coexistence, and Democratization in Eastern Europe,”Nationalities Papers43, no. 4, 2015. Symposium is pp. 634-51, my response is pp. 646-51.
EDITED:
Governance in Ethnically Mixed Cities, editor and author of introduction, “Politics is Local: Ethnoreligious Dynamics under the Microscope,” (London / New York: Routledge, 2007). Softcover version published in August 2016. Previously a special issue of Ethnopolitics 6, no. 2, 2007:
ARTICLES IN REFEREED JOURNALS
- “Ethnic Conflict: Looking Inside Groups,” Ethnopolitics16, no. 1, November 2016, pp. 74-81.
- “Consociational Settlements and Reconstruction: Bosnia in Comparative Perspective (1995-Present),” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 656, no. 1, November 2014, pp. 97-115.
- “Discourse in Bosnia and Macedonia on the Independence of Kosovo: When and What is a Precedent?”Europe-Asia Studies 65, no. 5, July 2013, pp. 874-88.
- “Must the State Be a Vertical Network? Considering Kosovo,” Sudosteuropa 60, no. 4, 2012, pp. 514-25.
- “Microdynamics of Bilateral Ethnic Mobilization,” Ethnopolitics 10, no. 1, March 2011, pp. 1-34.
- “Demography in Ethnic Party Fragmentation: Hungarian Local Voting in Romania,” Party Politics 17, no. 2, March 2011, pp. 189-204.
- “Making or Breaking Kosovo: Applications of Dispersed State Control.” Perspectives on Politics 6, no. 4, December 2008, pp. 655-74.
- “Dilemmas of Autonomy and Liberal Pluralism: Examples Involving Hungarians in Central Europe,” with Stephen Deets, Nations and Nationalism 11, no. 2, April 2005, pp. 285-305.
- “Examining Ethnic Violence and Partition in Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Ethnopolitics 4, no. 1, March 2005, pp. 49-64.
- “What Belgium Can Teach Bosnia: The Uses of Autonomy in ‘Divided House’ States,” Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (JEMIE), issue 3, 2003,
- “NGO Strategies for Hungarian and Roma Minorities in Central Europe,” Voluntas 13, no. 1, March 2002, pp. 1-26.
- “Measuring Ethnic Party Success in Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine,” Problems of Post-Communism 48, no. 4, July/August 2001, pp. 59-69.
- “Missing Boundaries of Comparison: The Political Community,” with Peter Juviler, Political Science Quarterly 114, no. 3, Fall 1999, pp. 435-53.
JOURNAL FORUM / SPECIAL ISSUE
Everyday Post-Socialism
Forum for the Journal of International Relations and Development, coordinator, with Antje Vetterlein and Stephen Deets. A non-triumphalist retrospective on the 1989 revolutions. Short pieces from East European scholars, writers, and artists on the adjustments that individuals had to make to markets and privatization after 1989. Vol. 12, no. 4, November 2009.
CHAPTERS IN EDITED VOLUMES
- “Ethnic Minorities,” chapter inRoutledge Handbook of East European Politics, Adam Fagan and Petr Kopecky, eds. Expected in mid-2017.
- “How Non-Territorial Autonomy Reconfigures State-Minority Negotiations, For Better Outcomes,” in Tove Malloy, Alexander Osipov, and Balazs Vizi, eds., Managing Diversity through Non-Territorial Autonomy: Assessing Advantages, Deficiencies, and Risks(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 19-30. Originated as a project with the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI), Flensburg, Germany.
- “Institutional Change and Identity Shift: The Case of Scotland,” in Jyotirmaya Tripathy and Sudarsan Padmanabahn, eds., Becoming Minority: How Discourses and Policies Produce Minorities in Europe and India (London/New Delhi: Sage, 2014), pp. 111-29.
- “The Autonomous Structures of Native American Reservations,” in Levente Salat, Sergiu Constantin, Alexander Osipov, and István Gergő Székely, eds., Autonomy Arrangements around the World: A Collection of Well and Lesser Known Cases (Cluj-Napoca and Bolzano: Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities, ISPMN,and the European Academy of Bolzano, EURAC: 2014), pp. 187-99.Originated as a project with the European Centre or Minority Issues (ECMI).
- “Organic versus Strategic Approaches to Peacebuilding,” in Roger Mac Ginty, ed., The Routledge Handbook of Peacebuilding (London: Routledge, January 2013), pp. 276-86.
- “The Role of Brokerage and Network Clientelism in Defusing Self-Determination Movements,” in Müge Aknur, ed., Challenges to Balkan Security and the Contribution of International Organizations (Izmir, Turkey: Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Business, Department of International Relations, 2009), pp. 141-58.
- “Territory and the Hungarian Status Law: Time for New Assumptions?,” in Osamu Ieda, ed., Beyond Sovereignty: From Status Law to Transnational Citizenship? (Budapest: Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Legal Studies, and the Slavic Research Centre, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, 2006). Available at
- “Hungarians in Transcarpathian Ukraine,” in Ukraine and Its Western Neighbors, James Clem and Nancy Popson, eds. (Washington, D.C.: The Woodrow Wilson Center, 2000), pp. 51-65.
- “The Components of Coexistence: Hungarian Minorities and Inter-ethnic Relations in Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine,” in John Micgiel, ed., State and Nation Building in East Central Europe: Contemporary Perspectives (New York: Columbia University, Institute on East Central Europe, 1996), pp. 153-75.
OTHER PUBLISHED ARTICLES
- “Beyond Technique to Accuracy and Agency,” in “Quantitative / Qualitative: Challenging the Binary,” Rachael Kiddey, ed., Independent Social Research Foundation Bulletin 12, March 2017, available at:
- “Tempo, Protest, and Emergency Ethnography in the Trump Moment,” Duck of Minerva, January 2017, available at:
- “The Higher Education and Research Bill, 2016 – Key Points,” June 2016, The Convention on Higher Education, available at:
- Response contribution to discussion on my 2012 book, “Book Symposium: Ethnic Struggle, Coexistence, and Democratization in Eastern Europe,” Nationalities Papers 43, no. 4, pp. 646-51, 2015.
- “‘The Hungarians’ and the Presidential Election in Romania,” LSEE Blog, December 2014, available at:
- “England’s Riots and the Lessons for Policy and Behaviour”, The Conversation (Online magazine, Australia), 21 August, 2011, available at:
- “Bilateral Mobilizations, Vigilantes, and RiotWombles”, Blog post, Nationalities Blog of the Association for the Study of Nationalities, 11, August 2011, available at:
- “Vojvodina,” case study article for Encyclopedia Princetoniensis: The Princeton Encyclopedia of Self-Determination, Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination at Princeton University. At:
- “Minorities, Kin States, and the 2001 Hungarian Status Law,” with Stephen Deets, Analysis of Current Events (ACE) 14, no. 1 (Association for the Study of Nationalities: February, 2002).
- “The Czech Republic” and “The Slovak Republic,” in Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast, Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies (Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2002), pp. 95-103 and 411-20.
- Articles on the Czech and Slovak Republics in Nations in Transit: Civil Society, Democracy, and Markets in East Central Europe and the Newly Independent States (New York: Freedom House, 1995), pp. 44-49 and 122-28; article on the Slovak Republic in the 1997 edition, pp. 338-54.
WORKS UNDER REVIEW AND IN PROGRESS
Manuscript written
- “The Relational Emergence of Political Entities,” submitted for an edited volume on The Relational Turn in the Study of World Politics, edited by Daniel Nexon, Patrick Thaddeus Jackson, and George Lawson. Cambridge University Press has expressed interest in reviewing the volume.
- “Moderating Effects of Patronage in the Middle East and Eastern Europe,” with Gul Kurtoglu-Eskisar, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey. APSA conference paper. 2009.
- “Comparative Enclave Politics in Eastern Europe,” for a conference on Ethnic Politics and Electoral Democracy.
- “What’s In and Out? Social Identity Theory, Group Conflict, and Multiple Loyalties,” with Allyson Ford
Article manuscript in progress
- “Routinizing Ethnic Conflict: Dynamics of a Post-Riot Mayoral Election.”
- “The Relational Evolution of Ethnic Political Parties: Early Post-Socialism in Central Europe”
Book manuscript in progress
1.Ethnic Parties in Enclave Regions (Funding received from ISRF)
An examination of voting and party dynamics in regions in which the statewide ethnic minority is the local majority, with a focus on Hungarian enclave politics in Romania, Serbia, and
Slovakia, and Albanian enclave politics in Macedonia / FYROM. Fieldwork conducted in Serbia in May 2016 and Romania in July 2016, expected in Macedonia and Slovakia in 2017.
2.Ethnicity and Governance in a Europe of Regions (long-term project)
An examination of non-territorial governance structures, based on a functional rather than a territorial principle, for ethnic or linguistic groups in Belgium, Hungary, Kosovo, and Serbia. Have published some articles on this subject.
BOOK REVIEWS
- Review of Sener Akturk, Regimes of Ethnicity and Nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), as part of a symposium on the book,Nationalities Papers, 42, no. 5, July 2014, pp. 892-95.
- Review of Lincoln A. Mitchell, The Color Revolutions (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012);Perspectives on Politics 11. No. 2, June 2013, pp. 681-82.
- Review of Matthew Ciscel, The Language of the Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and Identity in an Ex-Soviet Republic (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers / Lexington Books, 2007); Slavonic and East European Review 87, no. 4, October 2009, pp. 721-31.
- Review of Paul Lendvai, The Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat (London: Hurst and Company, 2003); Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 12, no. 1, 2006, pp. 107-9.
- Review of Raju Thomas, ed., Yugoslavia Unraveled: Sovereignty, Self-Determination, Intervention (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2003); Nationalities Papers, December 2003, pp. 521-23.
- Review of John K. Glenn, III, Framing Democracy: Civil Society and Civic Movements in Eastern Europe (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001); Voluntas, March 2003, pp. 129-31.
BOOK ENDORSEMENTS (Back cover)
- For Jennie Schulze, Strategic Frames: Europe, Russia, and Minority Inclusion in Estonia and Latvia (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017)
- For Todd Landman and Edzia Carvalho, Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics, 4th Edition (London: Routledge, 2016)
- For Karl Cordell and Timofey Agarin, Minority Rights and Minority Protections in Europe (London/ Washington DC: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016)
- For Kathryn Fisher, Security, Identity, and British Counterterrorism Policy (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
EVENT DATABASE
Relational Evolution of Ethnic Political Identities in Romania and Slovakia, 1989-1999: A Qualitative Event Database
This research consists of a collection of 120,000 digital photos of local newspaper articles in Hungarian, Romanian, and Slovak, which chronologically document the incremental emergence of ethnic political identities in Romania and Slovakia. The collapse of Communism in 1989 provided a unique moment in which political actors began to contest on an open political field for the first time in decades. It is in this setting that the “us-them” dynamics of ethnic politics can be traced over time.
TEACHING AND PHD SUPERVISION
Current courses:Previous Courses:
Democracy and Constitutional DesignNationalism and Ethnic Conflict
Democratic Political InstitutionsPolitics in Eastern Europe
Governing Divided SocietiesComparative Politics (undergraduate & graduate)
International Relations (undergraduate & graduate)
Economics & Politics of Race in the United States
PhD Supervision
First supervisions (7): completed 3, enrolled 4
Second supervisions (7): completed 7
Committee (at Ohio University): 1
Examinations within the Political Science Department, UCL: 1, 2013
Examinations outside of the department at UCL: 4, SSEES, 2009, 2011, 2012, and Institute of Education, 2016.
Examinations as external examiner:4. University of Edinburgh 2011, London School of Economics 2012, 2015, Central European University 2013.
External Mentorship and External Examining
- External Examiner for the MSc in Comparative Politics, London School of Economics and Political Science. Democracy, Politics & Markets, and Conflict Streams. 2011 to 2014.
- One of 4 faculty participants for a workshop for PhD students on methodology, International Studies Association – Northeast conference, Providence, MA, November 5, 2011. Four academic staff read PhD student papers and give individualfeedback.
HONORS AND AWARDS
Research Grants
Received
- Independent Social Research Foundation, Mid-Career Fellowship for 2017-18, allowing for one year of research leave and research expenses. Project: “Ethnic Enclaves, Reversed Politics, and the Entrenchment of Difference. Total of £56,093. Application summary at
- Participant in UCL Grand Challenges grant on the UK government’s Fundamental British Values educational program, led by Christine Callender, UCL, 2015 onwards.
- British Academy Small Research Grant, research in Eastern Europe on ethnic contention, summer 2007, £7441.
- Nuffield Foundation, initial grant offer, declined for above funding, summer 2007
Shortlisted
- Shortlisted to meeting stage, Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship, for project on Politics in Enclave Cities, early 2015 (not received).
- Second round reached, ESRC 5-year grant proposal to catalog photos in event database above, early 2012 (not received).
Fellowships and Visiting Scholar Positions
- Visiting Senior Fellow, LSEE Research on South Eastern Europe (part of the European Institute), London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), 2014-15.
- Academy Scholar, Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, 2003-2005
- Associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University, 2003-2005, and Visiting Scholar, Summer 2002
- Research Fellow, Institute on Race and Social Division, Boston University, 2000-2001
Previous Research, Travel, and Language Study Grants
- Ohio University Research Committee grant, 2002, for research trips to Eastern Europe in 2002 and 2003
- International Research and Exchanges Board, Short-Term Travel Grant to research political autonomy activity in Vojvodina, F. R. Yugoslavia, Summer, 2001
- Institute for the Study of World Politics, Dissertation Fellowship, 1999-2000
- Harriman Institute, Columbia University, Fellowships for graduate study, 1999-2000, 1996-97, and 1995
- American Council of Learned Societies, East European Dissertation Fellowship, 1998-99
- NSEP David L. Boren Graduate Fellowship for dissertation research in Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine, 1997-98
- Institute of War & Peace Studies, the Harriman Institute, and the Carnegie Corporation, for NGO research in conjunction with the above project, 1997-98
- President’s Fellow, Columbia University, Spring, 1997
- Various Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships (FLAS) for the study of Czech and Hungarian, 1993-96
- Carnegie Project on Political Order and Change in the Former Soviet Union, grant for research on trans-border cooperation based in western Ukraine, 1995
- Ford Foundation Grant, undergraduate thesis research on the For Hall Indian Reservation, Idaho, 1990
Conference Travel Grants
- University College London, Graduate School Staff Conference Fund, for British International Studies Association annual conference, Exeter, UK, December 2008.
- University College London, Faculty Dean’s Travel Fund, for International Studies Association annual conference, San Francisco, March 2008
- University College London, Graduate School Staff Conference Fund, for International Studies Association annual conference, San Francisco, March 2008
- University College London, Faculty Dean’s Travel Fund, for International Studies Association annual conference, Chicago, March 2007
- The British Academy, Overseas Travel Grant, for Association for the Study of Nationalities Europe conference (Globalization, Nationalism and Ethnic Conflicts), Belgrade, Serbia, September 2006
- University College London, Faculty Dean’s Travel Fund, for Association for the Study of Nationalities annual conference, New York, March 2006
Training Grant
ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, Training Bursary to attend course on Stata at the University of Manchester, January 2008
INVITED LECTURES AND SEMINARS (general conference presentations towards end)
- “Feedback Effects and Change: Parties, City Politics, and Regional Politics in Ethnic Enclaves,” Economics and Business Conference, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL, June 22, 2015.
“Ethnic Enclaves, Reversed Political Dynamics, and Consequences for Cross-Group Coalitions,”
- Uppsala University, Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies (Sweden), conference on “Trans-ethnic Coalition-Building within and across States,” with the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI), January 8, 2015.
- Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, Alumni Conference, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, September 19, 2014.
“Ethnic Struggle, Coexistence, and Democratization”