ABOUT ME
Hello and thank you for stopping by my digital profile.
In 2019 I have joined the Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance as result of the Excellence 100 Doctoral Prize awarded to me through which Loughborough University is selecting 100 outstanding academics across a wide range of disciplines to advance their career.
I obtained my PhD degree from Loughborough University in 2018. To conduct my PhD research, I was awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship by the European Commission and a Research Studentship by the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at Loughborough University. On my academic trajectory, I obtained a Research Master in European Studies from Maastricht University (MSc cum laude), a BA in International Relations from Moldova State University (top 5%) and spent one Research Year in European Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Poland and one Undergraduate Exchange Year at the University of Georgia, School of Public and International Affairs in the USA.
How does the EU conduct diplomacy in the digital age? What are the push and pull factors for EU diplomatic cooperation in third countries? How can we evaluate EU performance in Eastern Europe? These are the main leading questions guiding my research agenda. Some of my findings exploring different aspect of EU diplomacy and EU performance have been published in among others, in the Hague Journal of Diplomacy, Studia Diplomatica, East European Politics. I also contributed to the Routledge Handbook on the ENP (Routledge, Oxford), the External Governance as Security Community Building( Palgrave, London) and co-edited the European Union and Central and Eastern Europe: Assessing Performance (Routledge, Oxford).
For more details here is a classic academic overshare: my CV.
Besides the academic personae, you will find here the different ways I make use of my experiences, knowledge, and expertise. From 2012 I am committed to building bridges between Moldovan diaspora and my home-country (Moldova) and in this manner facilitate the transfer of skills, and know-how. From 2017 I dedicate my time to eradicate stigma about cancer in Moldova. And from 2019 I have established my own company, the Knowlet, through which I am committed to empowering academics with an entrepreneurial thinking mindset.
Would you like to get in touch? Drop me a line here. I’d love to hear from you whether it’s feedback, an opportunity to co-creating together or simply share a virtual coffee!
SCHOLARPRENEUR
I am interested in creating synergies between academia and entrepreneurship. Towards the final stage of my PhD, and after gaining 8+ years of experience in the academic world, I joined the Maastricht Launchbase Incubator Programme to explore the start-up scene and gain and develop my own entrepreneurial skills. As result I formed, in 2017, a small working group with whom we were discussing the challenges that academics face, especially in the early stages of their career, and how to address them. In 2018 I was awarder the Diversity & Inclusivity grant by Maastricht University through which I worked with circa 100 early-career female academics and helped them become more competitive on the labour market.
All this led to establishing my own company, the Knowlet, in 2019. Through its activities I am committed to empowering academics to use their talents and accumulated experience to identify opportunities in the marketplace and to understand how and when to capitalize on them.
To follow my activities on this, make use of my services or work with me, see The Knowlet.
cOMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
I started living abroad since the age of 19 and I have been part of different communities around the world, but the one I belong to the most is the Moldovan one. I started Noroc Olanda, the community of Moldovans residing in the Netherlands in 2014 as I was committed to promote my country through its best resources – its people. It is no secret that my country is among the many nations affected by migration: if at the beginning of the years 2000 there were aprox. 4,1 mln inhabitants then in 2019, according to the latest numbers from the National Bureau of Statistics there were only 2,6 mln people. Migration talks about my country puts emphasis on my country’s poverty, dependence on remittances, the poor economic development, the continuous corruption problems, an unattractive investment environment and other less positive scenarios.
My aim was and still remains to bring together Moldovans residing in the Netherlands (where I also live), to promote my country through more positive examples and to initiate developmental projects for my country. Alongside my team at Noroc Olanda we are implementing a variety of activities and projects that build bridges between Moldovan diaspora and our home-country and in this manner facilitate the transfer of skills, expertise, experiences, and know-how.
For those interested to see how we empower, work, and learn together, as well as get involved in collective action, visit my community’s page here.
PHILANTROPY
In my home country we have a saying: ‘Dar din Dar se face Rai’. The ad literam translation is: ‘From gift to gift we build Heaven’. I strongly believe that when we are of service to others this is when we find meaning, purpose, and create our footprint on this planet, because what we do for ourselves dies with us.
As many know, I am a cancer survivor. At age 27 I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma which resulted in 6 long and dreadful months of chemotherapy. At that point of my life I started thinking about my legacy and at the same time I started to enjoy life and be grateful for everything and everyone. This life-changing experience gave me the opportunity to commit to women going through cancer and cancer survivors in my home country. In Moldova, cancer is a disease that everyone fears, there is a lot of stigma surrounding it and little to nothing is being done about the wellbeing and mental health of those affected directly and indirectly by cancer.
Since 2017 I am committed to the Run Pink Moldova community for whom I organize Retreats for cancer patients and survivors where they get to experience psychological group therapy sessions and where we teach them self-help instruments such as: journaling, yoga, meditation, art therapy and sisterhood. Besides this I help organize crowdfunding campaigns, charity events and raise money for Run Pink Moldova.
Discover this beautiful community here and get in touch if you want to support us!