Education

PhD (Government), Harvard University 
A.M. (Government), Harvard University 
B.A., summa cum laude, PBK (Political Science - International Relations; French), Williams College 

Research

My research agenda analyzes how migrations (old and new) transform politics. I explore political developments associated with a world in which people's experiential space transcends the national territory of just one country. One polity that contributes to this global trend of people living lives across national borders is the European Union. I analyze the political effects of free movement, under the aegis of European citizenship, on people, parties, and political systems, focusing on the migrants' countries of origin.  

My book manuscript Citizens of the Market: Free Movement and Democratic Resilience in the European Union examines how free movement empowers societies vis-à-vis states in the migrants' countries of origin, with profound ramifications for domestic and diaspora politics.

In another recently published book, Transnational Social Protection: Social Welfare Across National Borders (2023, Oxford University Press, co-authored with Peggy Levitt, Erica Dobbs, and Ken Sun), I examine the transformation of social welfare in a world on the move, across the life cycle. We show how childcare, education, health, work, and retirement are being provided across borders around the world. Learn more and order the book here.

Other research (and teaching) interests include cyberpolitics, pandemic politics, communism and post-communism, Eastern Europe, aging and ageism, democratization, state and nation-building.

Publications

Levitt, Peggy, Erica Dobbs, Ken Sun, and Ruxandra Paul. 2023. Transnational Social Protection: Social Welfare Across National Borders. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Paul, Ruxandra. 2020. "Europe's Essential Workers: Migration and Pandemic Politics in Central and Eastern Europe During COVID-19." European Policy Analysis. 6(2): 238-263.

Paul, Ruxandra. 2017. “Welfare Without Borders: Unpacking the Bases of Transnational Social Protection for International Migrants.” Oxford Development Studies 45(1): 33-46.

Paul, Ruxandra. 2015. “Ending Ebola: A Moving Target.” PS: Political Science & Politics 48(1) (January), and “Introduction” (with Ken Sherrill); guest editor of the cover-featured symposium The Politics and Policy of Ebola.

Paul, Ruxandra. 2013. “Space, the final frontier of socialisation research: Geopolitical contexts, migrant resocialisation and political remittances.” In Abendschön, Simone (ed.), Growing into Politics: Contexts and Timing of Political Socialisation, Colchester, UK: ECPR Press; pp. 183-215.

Working Papers

“Citizens of the Market: The Socio-Political Effects of High-Mobility Migration in Migrant-Sending Countries”

"Migration Crises as Nation-Building: Europe and America"

"A Matter of Life and Death: Necropatriotism and the Politics of Diaspora Engagement During COVID-19" (with Osman Balkan, Swarthmore College)

Courses

POSC 109: Pandemic Politics: Democracy versus Disease

POSC 170: Building Nation-States, Markets and Democracy in Europe

POSC 239: Acceptable Prejudice: Age, Aging, Ageism

POSC 270: European Union Politics - Integration and Disintegration

POSC 370: Cyberpolitics

POSC 436: European Democracy

POSC 470: International Migrations and Politics

Special Topics: POSC 490 European Migrations Past & Present; POSC 490: Migrations and IR; Interdisciplinary 390 (Political Economy): The Modern Welfare State

Awards and Affiliations

Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University - Visiting Scholar and Affiliate

Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies

Chateaubriand Fellowship of the French Government

Weatherhead Center for International Affairs research grant, Harvard University

Krupp Foundation research grant, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University

Certificate of Excellence in Teaching, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University

James P. Baxter III Honor Scholarship, Williams College

Bronfman Family Scholarship, Williams College

Ruchman Fellow, Oakley Center for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Williams College 

Miscellanea

Outside the Political Science universe, I teach fitness classes - Barre and Barre Cardio - at the Amherst Gym (open to students, faculty, and staff). I am a Certified Group Exercise Instructor (American Fitness and Aerobics Association), Zumba certified instructor, and Barre Above Method certified instructor. I also like (slow) long-distance running. Other interests: music (piano, guitar, vocal), dance, art and art history, journalism, travels, hiking, film, theater, nature.