Andrei Gheorghe

Andrei Gheorghe is a PhD candidate enrolled in a joint doctoral programme at the University of Bucharest and l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris. He holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Bucharest and an MA in Political Science through a double-degree programme jointly offered by the University of Bucharest and EHESS Paris. This academic trajectory reflects a sustained engagement with the study of contemporary political phenomena in Central and Eastern Europe.

His research focuses on populism, nationalism, and illiberalism, with a particular emphasis on Romania and Hungary. His doctoral thesis adopts a comparative perspective to analyse the construction of the concept of “the people” in populist discourse in Hungary and Romania between 2010 and 2020. This project situates populism within broader debates on democratic backsliding and cultural polarisation, exploring how discursive strategies shape collective identity formation in illiberal contexts and political legitimacy.

Currently, Andrei is affiliated with the Romanian National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives (CNSAS) as a researcher and serves as a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest. He recently published the article “The Political Instrumentalization of the Collective Memory of the Communist Past Against the Rule of Law in Romania (2017–2019)” in Studia Politica (2024, DOI: 10.62229/sprps24-2/6). This work examines how historical narratives are mobilised in illiberal projects to undermine democratic norms and the rule of law.

He is a recipient of the French Government Scholarship (2023) and actively contributes to debates on populism and culture wars. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5903-8199.