Conference Participants

Alicia Steinmetz, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Politics & International Relations
Florida International University

Alicia Steinmetz is a political theorist and historian of political thought, specializing in the early modern period, and with additional active research interests in ancient Greek rhetoric and sophistry and in contemporary liberalism and its limits. Her research looks at how reason has been imagined in Western political thought, and how images of reason change over time.

Her current book project, Claiming the World: Bourgeois Freedom and the Problem of Imagination, makes an argument about contemporary political thinking by telling a new story about its European early modern past. The argument is that the idea of reason as separate from and often opposed to, the imagination is a fiction which has outlived its usefulness, and that imagination should be recovered as a central object of political-theoretical inquiry in the present. She builds this argument by telling a new story about the development of bourgeois freedom as a process of wrestling with the powerful but unpredictable force of imagination amidst the rise of commercial society, a process whose stakes were the very boundaries of the self and the self’s sphere of proper control. Across the book, she shows how a series of politically motivated visions of free selfhood produced successive transformations in how the relationship between imagination and reason has been understood.

Kirsten E. Wood, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of History
Florida International University

Kirsten Wood is a specialist in the history of the early American republic. Her research centers on the social, economic, and political aspects of everyday life in the early United States, with particular attention to issues of gender, power, and belonging. Her first book, Masterful Women: Slaveholding Widows from the American Revolution through the Civil War (2004), reinterpreted the southern white elite's socio-political ideology of patriarchal "mastery" in light of slaveholding widows' distinctive legal, economic, and social position within enslaving households and families. Her 2014 article in the American Historical Review, “Join with Heart and Soul and Voice’: Music, Harmony, and Politics in the Early American Republic,” adapted insights from musicology and the history of emotions to illuminate grassroots partisan political culture at the dawn of the nineteenth century. 

Her second book, Accommodating the Republic: Taverns in the Early United States (2023), challenges the familiar temperance narrative that taverns were lesions on the body politic. Tavern goers and keepers played pivotal roles in the early republic's culture of improvement, the transportation revolution, the evolution of civic participation, and the vernacular construction of citizenship in the new nation. Her ongoing projects move in two distinct directions. Returning to questions emerging from her work on the emotions associated with patriotic music, she is exploring the (apparently unlikely) possibilities for joy and pleasure for enslaved and free people of color in the nation's civic spaces. 

She is also building a set of case studies, beginning with dentists, inventors, and genteel instructors, to examine mobility, entrepreneurship, and the politically contested meanings of innovation in the early republic. Beyond the early republic, her teaching and advising interests stretch chronologically from the colonial period to Reconstruction and thematically from political and economic questions to issues in the histories of slavery, gender, and women.

Markus Thiel, Ph.D.

Director, Miami-Florida Jean Monnet Center of Excellence
Professor, Department of Politics & International Relations
Florida International University

Markus Thiel is a professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University, Miami and director of FIU’s Jean Monnet Center of Excellence. His research interests are the political sociology of the EU and European (Union) politics more generally, as well as human rights and identity politics. He graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Miami in 2005 and has published several EU-related articles and book chapters in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of European Integration, the Journal of Common Market Studies and others.

In addition, his research on the political sociology of the EU produced the monographs The Limits of Transnationalism (Palgrave, 2011) and EU Civil Society and Human Rights Advocacy (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), as well as five co-edited volumes on: Diversity and the European Union (with Lisa Pruegl, Palgrave, 2009), Identity Politics in the Age of Globalization (with Roger Coate, Lynne Rienner/First Forum Press, 2010), European Identity & Culture: Narratives of Transnational Belonging (with Rebecca Friedman, Ashgate, 2012), Sexualities in World Politics: How LGBTQ Claims Shape International Relations (with Manuela Picq, Routledge, 2015) and EU Development Policies between Norms and Geopolitics (with Sarah Beringer & Sylvia Maier, Palgrave, 2019).

Most recently, he published The EU’s international LGBTI rights promotion promises & pitfalls (Routledge, 2021), and co-authored The Politics of Social In/Exclusion in Europe (Palgrave/Springer, 2023, with Ernesto Fiocchetto & Jeffrey Maslanik). He supervises doctoral students in the areas of EU politics, international organizations and political sociology.

Raphaël Trapp

Consul General of France in Miami

Raphaël Trapp became Consul General of France in Miami in 2022. Trapp joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2003. In 2004, he was assigned to the Budgetary Office at the General Administration Department before joining the Human Rights office of the Ministry (2006-2009).

In 2009, Mr. Trapp was appointed as legal advisor at the Human Rights unit of the Permanent mission of France to the United Nations in Geneva (Switzerland). Three years later, he was promoted to lead the human rights department of the Mission. He participated in the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights violations in Syria and worked more broadly on the universal protection of freedom of speech, and the fight against arbitrary detentions and death penalty.

In 2013, he joined the French Embassy in Rabat (Morocco) as first secretary, political affairs, where he worked closely with the Moroccan civil society. Back in Paris, he joined the Secretary General of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs office. At the United Nations, he was the deputy permanent Representative of France prior to arriving in Miami as the Consul General.

Christofer Burger

Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Miami

Christofer Burger has been Consul General of Germany in Miami since August 2023. He previously served as spokesperson to Foreign Ministers Annalena Baerbock and Heiko Maas. He has held diplomatic posts in Nicaragua, Iraq and was seconded to the U.S. Department of State’s Office of the Special Presidential Envoy to the Coalition to Defeat ISIS during the Trump administration. He holds an M.A. in Islamic Studies and Economics from Freie Universität Berlin.

Régis Dandoy, Ph.D.

Professor of Political Sciences, Center for European Studies
Universidad San Francisco de Quito

Régis Dandoy holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). He is professor of comparative politics at the College of Social Sciences and Humanities and director of the Centre for European Studies at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador). He is also a research associate at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), Waseda University (Japan) and the United Nations University (Japan). His main research interests focus on digital democracy, local and regional elections, electronic voting and election observation. He has published books and scientific articles on federalism and subnational elections. He holds a Jean Monnet Chair on the role and impact of European Union election observation missions in third countries.

Ekaterina R. Rashkova

Associate Professor of Comparative Politics, Public Governance and Management Unit
Director, PPE Utrecht
Utrecht University School of Governance, The Netherlands

Ekaterina R. Rashkova is associate professor of comparative politics at the Public Governance and Management unit at Utrecht University School of Governance and Co-Director of the PPE College Utrecht. She earned her Ph.D. in political science at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, in 2010 for a dissertation titled “Political Learning and the Number of Parties: Why Age Matters,” which won the UniCredit and Universities Foundation Best CEE Ph.D. Thesis Award in May 2011. She received a bachelor’s in economics and a master’s in political economy and public policy from Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to taking her post at Utrecht, Ekaterina worked at the Sussex University, University of Innsbruck and Leiden University. During the 2015-2016 academic year, she won the prestigious EURIAS Junior Fellowship Grant, with which she spent a year at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Study (NIAS) conducting research on the effect of electoral regulation on party competition.

Her research interests lie in the study of electoral and party systems, the strategic behavior of political actors, and representation. She is interested in how institutions shape decisions and therefore outcomes. She studies party system development, electoral and party regulation, and representation, with a focus on gender and immigrants. Her current research interests include the political integration of non-citizen residents in host countries, as well as the connection of national political parties to their diaspora abroad. Her work compares new and established democracies and has appeared in Comparative European Politics, West European Politics, European Political Science Review, International Political Science Review, Party Politics, Political Studies, Representation as well as in several edited book volumes.

At the moment she is working on a project broadly termed 'the party abroad', which investigates how national political parties interact (or not) with their diaspora abroad and how immigrants are included (or not) in electoral processes in their host country. Together with colleagues, she is also examining the effects of Covid-19 on party system development, in particular on the success of new political parties and electoral accountability and the measurement of substantive representation of marginalized groups. Between 2015-2022 she served as editor of the European Political Science journal. 

Ekaterina is the Governance Board Member of the interdisciplinary Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) bachelor - PPE College Utrecht - which was launched in September 2018. Since Spring 2024, she serves as the LEG Faculty co-director of the program. Together with the other three board members, Ekaterina manages PPE College Utrecht, which involves, among other things, day-to-day steering of the program, development of the curriculum, and vision and creativity on positioning PPE College Utrecht within the wider span of the University, as well as among similar proagrams internationally. In the past, she has been responsible for the Extra-Curricular Program and has chaired the Admissions Committee and served as a member on the admissions committee.

Tatiana Kostadinova, Ph.D.

Professor, Politics & International Relations
Director, European & Eurasian Studies Program
Florida International University

Tatiana Kostadinova is a professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations and the director of the European & Eurasian Studies Program at FIU. She received her Ph.D. in political science from the Florida State University. Her research and teaching interests include elections, institutions, democratization, political corruption, and populism. She has been the recipient of several grants, including the American Political Science Small Research Grant (2002) and a Fellowship Program Award from the German Marshall Fund of the United States (2003-2004).

Kostadinova is the author of two books. In Bulgaria 1879-1946: The Challenge of Choice (East European Monographs/Columbia University Press, 1995) she explored institutional arrangements, party competition, and voting patterns in Bulgarian parliamentary elections. The second book, Political Corruption in Eastern Europe: Politics After Communism (Lynne Rienner, 2012) analyzed the emergence of corruption as a major obstacle to successful democratic transition. Her findings turn the attention to the eroding impact of malfeasance on citizen trust in institutions and the role of the European Union for promoting integrity in public life. Other publications include journal articles in American Journal of Political Science, Electoral Studies, Journal of Peace Research, European Journal of Political Research, Political Research Quarterly, Party Politics, and Europe-Asia Studies.

Professor Kostadinova’s primary teaching area is comparative politics. At the undergraduate level, she teaches courses on Russian and Eastern European politics, electoral behavior, and research methods. Her graduate level courses include seminars on democratic transitions, political parties, political corruption, and advanced research.

Tameka Bradley Hobbs, Ph.D.

Library Regional Manager
Broward County African American Research & Cultural Center
Historian, educator, author, and activist

Tameka Bradley Hobbs is the library regional manager of Broward Public Library’s African American Research Library and Cultural Center (AARLCC) in Fort Lauderdale. She has also worked as a researcher, writer, consultant, and director for several public and oral history projects. She earned her undergraduate degree from Florida A&M University and her doctoral degree in United States history and historical administration and public history from Florida State University. Her book, Democracy Abroad, Lynching at Home: Racial Violence in Florida, was published by the University Press of Florida and has been awarded bronze medal for the 2015 Florida Book Award for Florida Nonfiction, and the 2016 Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Award from the Florida Historical Society. Hobbs has also appeared in several award-winning documentaries.

In 2024, Hobbs was recognized as one of 50 Movers & Shakers in the nation by Library Journal magazine. Additionally, the Black History Saturday School Series that she conceptualized has received commendations from both the National Association of Counties and the Urban Libraries Council.

Hobbs has served as the  founding and current president of the South Florida Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Inc. (ASALH, Inc.). She also serves on the board of directors for the South Florida People of Color (SFPoC), a nonprofit organization based in Miami Shores, Florida, dedicated to eradicating racism through education and advocacy. She helped to conceptualize the organization’s award-winning program, the Awkward Dinner, as well as it Unity360 Community Race Dialogue Series.

Rebecca Friedman

Professor, Department of History
Director, Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab
Florida International University

Rebecca Friedman focuses on the history and culture of modern Russia. Her monograph Modernity, Domesticity and Temporality in Modern Russia: Time at Home (Bloomsbury, 2020) explores how, from the nostalgic landed estate with its backward gaze to the present-focused and efficient urban apartment to the utopian communal dreams of a Soviet future, the idea of time was deeply embedded in Russian domestic life. Her 2006 book on the history of masculinity in Russia – Masculinity, Autocracy and the Russian University, 1804-1863 – examines behavior, loyalty, and sociability among a generation of Russian university students that would reshape the Russian social and political landscape for decades to come. She edited (with Barbara Clements and Dan Healy) Russian Masculinities in History and Culture, which is the first volume in English to focus on the growing field of Russian masculinity studies. She has also written about Russian childhood, the gendering of the Cadet Corps, and European Identities. She edited (with Markus Thiel), European Identity and Culture: Narratives of Transnational Belonging (Routledge, 2012).

Friedman has been a leader at Florida International University in a number of capacities. She served as the director of the European Union Center of Excellence/European and Eurasian Studies for over eight years and since 2012, she serves as the faculty fellow in the Office of the Provost and in 2019, she was named director of the Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab, one of FIU’s Emerging Preeminent Programs.