Meet VMU alumna: "A Journey of Scientific Empowerment: From Lithuania to the world"

Nargiz Hajiyeva Dr., an alumna of the Political Science and Diplomacy programme, (2017) will share her insight and experience on the topic "A Journey of Scientific Empowerment: From Lithuania to the World" within the discussion dedicated to VMU Alumni Day 2023.

Currently, she is a Ph.D., Political Scientist, Director of "Organization of Scientific Activities" Unit, Chair of Women Researchers Council (WRC), Academic lecturer on Political Leadership and Political Science, at Azerbaijan State University of Economics (UNEC), Director of "Empirical Methods" Working Group, Swiss Political Science Association (SPSA), Switzerland.

Before the event, you have the opportunity to get to know her better through her biography.

Since 2019, She served as a Political Science lecturer and academic supervisor (starting in 2022 October) at the International School of Economics and International Center for Graduate Education at the Azerbaijan State University of Economics (UNEC).

Between the 2021-2022 academic years, she did her Ph.D. research fellowship at the School of Economics and Political Science (HSG-SEPS) of the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland (HSG) fully funded by the Swiss Federal Government Excellence Scholarships amongst 3000 doctoral candidates out of 193 countries. Besides, she is a research fellow and a member of the Democracy NET young scholars’ network under the Department of Political Science at the University of Zurich and of the Swiss Political Science Association in Switzerland.

Between the 2021 and 2022 academic years, she has been a Ph.D. Research Fellow and Political Scientist at the School of Economics and Political Sciences of the University of St. Gallen funded by the Swiss Federal Government Excellence Scholarship Program of the Swiss Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation (SERI) in Switzerland. Besides, as the first female political scientist, she is the Director of the Empirical Methods Working Group at the Swiss Political Science Association in Bern, Switzerland and simultaneously, is a research member and a fellow of the “DEMOCRACY NET” – Scholars Network of the Political Science Department of the University of Zurich.

Since July 2022, as the first female Azerbaijani political scientist, she has served as the Director of the “Empirical Methods” Working Group together with her colleagues Prof. Dr. Marco Steenbergen at the Department of Political Science from the University of Zurich and Dr. Jan-Erik Refle, Associate researcher and political scientist from the University of Lausanne at Swiss Political Science Association (SPSA) in Bern, Switzerland. Since 2022 September, she has served as the Chair of the Women Researchers Council (WRC) under the Azerbaijan State University of Economics (UNEC) - an international research network of female researchers and scientists from both on and off campus on scholarly and educational projects in the field of social sciences, including political science, international law, political economy, international economics, and related spheres.

Given the information about her academic activities, she has a reflective experience of almost 7 years as a political scientist in international security and foreign policy, international migration, international law/rule of law, democratic studies and comparative politics, energy security, and energy diplomacy of South Caucasus and Eastern European countries, IP politics, as well as the 5 full-time years’ experiences in education management and training sphere.

Since 2015, she has been actively collaborating in different international and local projects related to energy politics, EU energy affairs, international migration, migration governance, and EU, launched by the International Center for Migration Policy Development – ICMPD, Vienna, Democracy NET Young Scholars Network of the University of Zürich, (Members – DemocracyNet) German Marshall Fund, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Visegrad School of Political Studies, DAAD, ERASMUS+ programs, the Cold War History Research Center at Corvinus University of Budapest, International Relations Institute Prague under the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc.

Between 2018 and 2022, she has been invited as a guest lecturer to European Universities, including Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania), Corvinus University of Budapest (Hungary), Kazimierz Wielki University (Poland), European Humanities University (Lithuania), Siegen University (Germany), Miskolc University (Hungary), and also presented her policy papers in different research seminars at the University of Zürich, University of St. Gallen, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, University of Malaga, Spain, University of Szeged, Hungary. Mrs. Hajiyeva is the author of more than 40 political articles, several scientific publications, some research projects, and two books and book chapters. She is a member of various international associations including the Swiss Political Science Association, ECPR, Austrian Political Science Association, German Political Science Association etc. She speaks English, Russian, French, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Swiss-German, and a bit Lithuanian. She is married and has 3-year-old daughter. 

Do you want to hear more? Join our discussion on November 10. Register here!