Instructors

Vera Ageeva graduated from the Philosophy Department, French Language Department, and School of International Relations at St. Petersburg State University. In 2008-2016, Vera served as an international relations expert at St. Petersburg City Administration. In 2012, she undertook an internship at Chicago City Hall, USA. In 2016, Vera defended a thesis for a scientific degree (candidate of science) in International Relations at St. Petersburg State University (topic – Russian soft power). Since 2017, Vera has been an associate professor at HSE. In 2020, she became a Doctoral student at Sciences Po Paris. Vera is also the Director of HSE French Club, a political consultant of the M6 channel (France), and a representative of 'Francophonie sans frontières' in Russia.

Sergei Akopov is a Professor of Political Science and International Relations at HSE – St. Petersburg. He is a Doctor of Sciences from the Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Science. Sergei did his postdoctoral training in Sweden, Denmark, and Hungary, and he was a guest lecturer at Aarhus University, Helsinki University, Tulane University, and SciencesPo Aix-en-Provence. Sergei is the author of over 100 publications in Russian, English, Hungarian and Spanish, as well as four books. His fields of interest include Russia’s identity and ontological security in world politics, intellectual history, transnational intellectuals, and ‘politics of loneliness’.

Mikhail Antonov is one of the most famous and influential modern theorists of legal positivism, whose work has allowed the scientific community to take a fresh look at this direction. Mikhail has a degree in Public Regulation in Economics from North-Western Academy of Public Service (1999) and a degree in Jurisprudence from Saint Petersburg State University (2000). At that time, he was focusing on researching the works by Georges Gurvitch, a Russian-French jurist and sociologist. In 2019 Mikhail got Ph.D. from Leiden University. He is known for his works in the field of legal positivism and the invaluable influence on the image of the Russian theory and philosophy of law among foreign specialists. Mikhail worked on the translation of the classic works of legal positivism and made a great contribution to the revival of the positivist tradition in Russia. He took part in the issuing of a revised edition of Hans Kelsen’s works which were previously translated into the Russian language. Mikhail is a member of the editorial boards of 11 scientific journals, such as 'BRICS Law Journal', 'Review of Central and East European Law', 'Revista Direitos Fundamentais & Democracia', 'World Journal of Social Science’. He is fluent in English, French, German, and Italian.

Paul Gragl is a Professor at the Institute of European Law at the University of Graz. After completing his doctoral studies on 'EU Accession to the ECHR' in Graz, he worked in various positions at City University London (Research Fellow; 2012-2013) and Queen Mary, University of London (Lecturer; Senior Lecturer; Reader; 2013-2021) where he taught and researched in public international law, EU law, human rights, and legal theory as well as legal philosophy. In 2018, his habilitation thesis 'Legal Monism: Law, Philosophy, and Politics' on the theoretical, descriptive, and moral significance of Kelsen’s theories on contemporary international and EU law was published by Oxford University Press. His research interests the relationship between legal orders, human rights protection in Europe (EU and ECHR), Kant’s legal philosophy and its import for law, freedom, and peace, and the theoretical and philosophical foundations of international and EU law.

Benedikt Harzl, M.A. is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for East European Law and Eurasian Studies (CEELES) as well as affiliated with the Department of Global Governance at the Institute for the Foundations of Law, the Faculty of Law where he also graduated in law. He completed the Master’s programme in East European Studies at the Free University of Berlin in 2010. After working at the Institute for European Studies in Minsk and the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin he was engaged as a researcher at the European Academy in Bolzano/Bozen (2007-2012) and worked as a university researcher at the CEELES between 2012 and 2016. He completed his Ph.D. in law at the University of Frankfurt and was based at Johns Hopkins University as Marshall Plan Foundation Fellow between 2016 and 2017. His research expertise covers problems of international law and comparative law with particular regard to self-determination conflicts in the post-Soviet space and processes of legal approximation against the background of the EU's Europeanization agenda of the Eastern Neighborhood. He has also been a legal advisor to the European Commission in matters pertaining to diversity management in the Balkan States.

Aiste Mickonyte is a senior scientist based at the Faculty of Law of the University of Graz. She pursues research and teaching at the Institute of the Foundations of Law (Department of Global Governance) as well as the Centre for East European Law and Eurasian Studies, both based at the Faculty of Law. She holds a doctorate in law from the University of Graz, an LL.M. in European Business Law from the University of Lund (Sweden) as well as an undergraduate law degree from the Mykolas Romeris University of Vilnius (Lithuania). Her research focus lies on the European framework of fundamental rights and EU business law. Her scholarly contributions have been published, inter alia, in the Review of Central and East European Law, the Heidelberg Journal of International Law as well as in the Nijhoff Studies in European Union Law. In this book series, she published her 2019 monograph 'Presumption of Innocence in EU Anti-Cartel Enforcement', which was also reviewed and presented in the Common Market Law Review. Current projects involve questions of the fundamental right to property, as well as the principle of the rule of law.

Maximilian Lakitsch is a postdoctoral lecturer at the Institute of Legal Foundations (Department of Global Governance) of the University of Graz. Before university, he has worked for research and development NGOs in Austria and Lebanon. His research focuses on issues of authority, legitimacy, and violence in conflict, peacebuilding, and religion in OECD countries and the MENA region. Maximilian studied Theology, Philosophy as well as International Relations. He wrote his Ph.D. thesis about modernity and violence at the University of Graz and the American University of Beirut.

Jürgen Pirker is Associate Professor at the Institute of Public Law and Political Science and Head of the Department of Global Governance at the Institute for the Foundations of Law of the University of Graz. He is a member of the steering committee of the Austrian Cluster for Conflict, Peace and Democracy (CPDC), chairman of the board of the Young Forum of the Austrian Commission of Jurists (ACJ) and a member of the Curricula Commission for International Study Programmes at the Faculty of Law. Previously he was Senior Researcher at the Institute for Minority Rights of the European Academy Bolzano/Bozen (EURAC), University Assistant at the Institute of Public Law and Political Science at the University of Graz and regular guest lecturer at the University of Klagenfurt and the Pedagogical University of Carinthia. He has held several international teaching positions and carried out international/national research projects in the field of diversity management and minority rights. His research interests include constitutional law, as well as interdisciplinary issues at the intersection of public law, history and politics, particularly in the field of minority rights, diversity management and interactive conflict transformation in Europe and the Alps-Adriatic region.

Andrei Scherbak got his Ph.D. degree in Political Science from MGIMO University in 2003. His initial research interests were parties and elections in Russia, and now they include nationalism, the theory of modernisation, and political economy. Since 2018, Andrey has been the Head of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at HSE – St. Petersburg. Russian Political Economy is one of Andrey's favourite classes. Although he does not claim to be an economic determinist, Andrey believes this class will show the importance of economic factors for the political process in Russia.