EARLY CAREER RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT
As a professional association, the EISA aims to provide its members with opportunities for career development and engagement with other colleagues. While the main vehicles for that aim are the events and conferences organized by the association, with emphasis on the Pan-European Conference on International Relations (PEC) and the European Workshops on International Studies (EWIS), other activities in-between conferences are also provided to members as a means to create a dynamic, inclusive and living network of scholars in the field of International Studies and related disciplines, to boost their careers and push the boundaries of research and innovation through exchange and collaboration.
The EISA is mindful of the specific challenges faced by early career scholars, either during their PhDs or in the first years after the award of the degree. These professionals are usually faced with high(er) levels of work precarity, lack of funding and scarce job positions, while still needing to comply with the overall competitive environment of academia that affects scholars in all career levels, pushing them to publish more and faster, attract funding for their own research, teaching and supervising, as well as taking over administrative tasks. The transition to the labor market entails the existence of opportunities for CV building and career development which sometimes cannot be met without a support network. For this reason, the EISA’s contribution to its members who are early career researchers includes not only specific events, grants and awards (Early Career Researchers Workshop, Best Dissertation Award, Best Graduate Paper Award, Postdoctoral Bridge Grants, online events and activities, the Mobility Fund available for all members to attend EISA conferences), and a dedicated portfolio in the Governing Board structure, but also counts on a peer-to-peer group created to provide specific opportunities for early career development to EISA members.
What is the ECD group?
The Early Career Development (ECD) group was established as part of the overall professional development support and activities that the European International Studies Association provides to its members. Its aim is to build a network of early career scholars in International Studies and related disciplines, to create clustering opportunities and collaborative projects, and promote leadership within early career researchers. The ECD group is comprised of up to six members who are selected for a two years mandate based on a call for new members plus the EISA board member who holds the portfolio of Early Career Development.
Activities
The group is the core structure of the early career researchers network at the EISA. Its activities comprise the establishment of an online and an offline community and a dynamic and living space for early career researchers to meet, promote their work, share experiences and develop professional activities and opportunities alongside more senior colleagues. The group also organizes events, meetings and activities where thematic discussions and learning can take place, on topics that are of particular relevance to early career scholars - at PEC, EWIS, and beyond.
Organization
ECD group members benefit from their involvement in the group by building up networks, visibility and organizational experience. The group convenes at least once a month via an online platform to plan activities and discuss group progress. It convenes at least once a year physically, normally at the EISA-PEC.
Portfolios
Communications (newsletter, event registration and email)
Social Media (Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram)
Online and offline events
The members of the Group are:
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Please note that some activities and events are restricted to EISA members.
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Samarjit Ghosh
Ozyegin University
Neslihan Dikmen Alsancak
Bilkent University, Department of International Relations
Neslihan Dikmen Alsancak holds a Ph.D. from the Department of International Relations, Bilkent University. She has been an adjunct lecturer at the same university and given a course on International Relations from the perspectives of the Global South. She is a researcher in International Relations focusing on understanding the relationship between security, violence, and politics in the Global South. Her research interests include critical approaches to security, critical theories of international relations, International Political Sociology, and postcolonial and decolonial thought.
António Leitão
University of Coimbra
António Leitão is a PhD candidate in International Politics and Conflict Resolution at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra. He is a researcher in OppAttune - Countering Oppositional Political Extremism Through Attuned Dialogue: Track, Attune, Limit, funded by Horizon Europe 2023. His research interests include the study of European integration theory, history and politics, the intersection of knowledge, power and discourse in international relations and extremism and democracy. He is also interested in peace studies, especially international interventionism and peacebuilding operations.
Itsasne Allende Sopelana
University of the Basque Country
Itsasne Allende Sopelana is working on her doctoral thesis at the University of the Basque Country, in the area of International Relations. Her research is on revolutionary diplomacy, and she is studying the Cuban case. Her main research topics focus on revolutions, diplomacy, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Justinas Lingevičius
Vilnius University
Justinas Lingevičius is a PhD candidate at Vilnius University, Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Lithuania. His research focuses on emerging technologies, perceptions of security and future warfare.
Tasniem Anwar
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Dr. Tasniem Anwar is assistant professor at the department of Criminology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her scientific interests are driven by a curiosity to understand how counter-terrorism measures operate at the intersection of international law and international security. To examine how law and security co-produce terrorism expertise and knowledge at the expense of marginalized communities, she uses post-colonial and feminist theory. She has published in academic journals including the Journal of Law and Society, and The European Journal of International Relations. She is a senior organisor of the Doing IPS seminar series in the Netherlands.
Leonie Felicitas Jegen
University of Amsterdam
Leonie Felicitas Jegen is a Doctoral Candidate at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, AISSR(University of Amsterdam, UvA), an ALMA Research Fellow at the Arnold-Bergsträsser Institute (University of Freiburg), and co-convener of the BA seminar “Migration, race, b/orders in Europe and Berlin” at the Free University of Berlin. Her doctoral research is funded by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Leonie’s research lies at the intersection of International Political Sociology, Critical Security and the emerging field of “Externalisation Studies.” It focuses on the external dimension of EUropean migrant smuggling governance in Senegal, multiscalar re-negotiation processes in donor funded so-called capacity building projects, and related questions of epistemic hierarchies and coloniality within migration control efforts. Leonie’s research has been published at the Journal for Ethnic and Migration Studies,Geoforum, The South African Journal for International Affairs and Bristol University Press.