PhD (Birmingham, UK); MA (Exeter, UK); BA (UNWE, Bulgaria)
My academic background is in International Relations and European Studies. Using the social constructivist approach to social science, my PhD explored the configuration and reconfiguration of borders by the European Commission in four policy areas. While doing my PhD I developed an interest in EU’s foreign policy towards the Middle East. After I completed this degree, I worked as a research associate on a project that was examining EU’s democracy promotion efforts in the Middle East. This allowed me to pursue my academic interests in EU’s foreign policy and in the Middle East. These were explored further in the following years when utilising contacts with Saudi peers I developed during my MA, I managed to visit the country and the wider Gulf region several times in the early 2010s. I have published the output from these endeavours in various academic outlets, including peer-reviewed journals and single-authored book.
Since the result of the Brexit referendum in 2016, I got increasingly interested in the underlying factors that led to this unexpected election outcome. In trying to research this issue, I started developing an interest in critical political economy. I am currently working on writing up the outcomes of these research endeavours in papers, which are due to be presented at academic conferences in the 2nd half of 2024.
I took up a Lectureship position at The University of Buckingham in mid-2012. Since then, I have taught at all levels across a range of modules in the areas of Politics, European Studies, and International Relations. Besides my academic duties, I have also carried out other duties, such as pastoral ones and being an Academic Integrity Advocate.
I am/ have been a member of several academic organisations, including BISA and UACES and am an Associate of the Higher Education Academy.
I would consider PhD supervision for projects in the key areas where I have expertise: European Union, Saudi Arabia, Brexit.
You can contact Valentina by email at: valentina.kostadinova@buckingham.ac.uk or +44 (0)1280 820192.
Selected publications and conference papers
“Brexit is Unlikely to Provide Answers to Governance Problems under Globalisation”, Economic Affairs, (2017) 37: 1, 135- 40
“The European Commission and the Transformation of EU Borders”, (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan: 2016)
“Saudi-EU Relations – Recent Impediments, Current Trends, and Future Options”, European Foreign Affairs Review, 18 (2013), 199-216.
“EU multiplicity and the European Commission – the case of free movement of people for work purposes”, in Rumford, C. & D. Buhari-Gulmez (eds), European Multiplicity (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, forthcoming)
“The European Commission and the Configuration of Internal EU Borders: Direct and Indirect Contribution”, Journal of Common Market Studies, 51.2 (2013), 264-280.
“What is the Status of the EU-GCC Relationship?”. Paper presented at Promoting an EU-GCC Dialogue on Foreign Policy Issues, organised by Qatar University’s Gulf Research Centre and the Institute for European Studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussels, 29-30 April 2013. Full text available.
“Saudi-EU Relations: Recent Impediments, Current Trends and Future Options”. Paper presented at the Geography Department Seminar, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 12 March 2013
“Neo-functionalism, the Commission and the construction of the EU’s external borders”, in Klaus Bachmann and Elżbieta Stadtmüller (eds), The EU’s Shifting Borders: Theoretical Approaches and Policy Implications in the New Neighbourhood (London: Routledge, 2012), 28-42. ISBN: 978-0-415-61609-6.
“GCC, EU’s promotion of regionalism and the lessons of European integration experience”, paper presented at the 6th ECPR General Conference, Iceland, 24-27 August 2011.
“UACES Event: Comparative Perspectives on the Substance of EU Democracy Promotion – Ghent, 24 June 2011”, Exchanging Ideas on Europe 69 (Autumn 2011), 3.
“The European Union’s internal discourse on democracy promotion in the Middle East”, Report on the Proceedings of the ESRC Project Palestine Workshop (2010), download report.
(with Gabriela Borz) “Assessing the 2007 accession – Romanian and Bulgarian party systems in comparative perspectives”, paper presented at UACES Conference Exchanging Ideas on Europe: Europe at a Crossroads, Bruges, 6-8 September 2010.
“UACES Event: Democracy Promotion and Human Rights in Europe and the Middle East – Leeds, 16 October 2009”, Exchanging Ideas on Europe 62 (December 2009-March 2010), 6. Also published in I-SEE (December 2009).
“The Commission, ENP and construction of borders”, Geopolitics 14.2 (2009), 235-255.
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