Aleksandra Polak – a researcher at the Department of Methodology of Political Research, Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw, and a PhD student at the Doctoral School of Social Sciences, University of Warsaw, in the discipline of political science and administration. She is currently employed in the international research project QUALREP: The Quality of Women’s Political Representation (European Research Council Synergy Grant), coordinated by King’s College London. Previously, she was the project leader for “Differentiation in the Descriptive Representation of Women in the European Parliament among Member States: A Comparative Study” (2022-2024), funded by the National Science Centre (grant no. 2021/41/N/HS5/02539) and carried out at the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw. She also worked on the research projects EnTrust – Enlightened Trust in Governance (Horizon 2020) and SOLID: Sovereignty, Solidarity and Identity in the European Union (ERC Synergy Grant). She has presented her research at conferences such as the European Conference on Politics and Gender in Ljubljana (2022) and Ghent (2024), the Joint Sessions of Workshops at the Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institute in Florence, and the Southern Political Science Association Annual Conference in St. Pete Beach, Florida, United States. She is an alumna of the University of Warsaw, the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, and the College of Europe in Natolin.
Research interests: political representation of women, electoral systems, political parties, gender equality, political system of the European Union, European Parliament
Unit:
Department of Methodology of Political Research
3 latest publications:
Polak, A. (2024) “European Parliament: at the forefront of women’s political equality?” [in:] Women in Politics, ed. Monika Banaś, pub. Księgarnia Akademicka. https://doi.org/10.12797/9788383680019.02
Polak, A., Hartwell, C. & Sidło, K. (2023). “Physically Present but Spiritually Distant: The View of the European Union in Poland”. Comparative Southeast European Studies, 71(3), 300-332. https://doi.org/10.1515/soeu-2022-0054
Polak, A. “Institutions or ideology? Cross-party and cross-country analysis of factors contributing to the election of women to the European Parliament”. European Political Science Review
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755773924000286