First row discussant: Irina Isaakyan

The State of the Union has selected a group of EUI community members as first-row discussants during the panels on 4 May. They’ll be the ones to get the ball rolling for lively discussion following the panel presentations. Get to know who they are, and what they specialize in.

Irina Isaakyan

1. What is your connection with the EUI?

I am a research associate at the Robert Schuman Centre. I have been in the EUI since 2012 – first as a Marie Curie  Fellow and then as a research associate.

2. How would you summarise your research, in just a few words?

My research on global elite migrations studies careers, mobility and networks of opera singers and ballet dancers who migrate from post-communist countries to the West. While exploring the complex relationship between the migrant and his/her network, the project analyses the following: career trajectories of elite migrants; the interplay between globalisation and nationalism in the operatic and ballet production; and the ‘migrant-artists’ agency’, or the ability to negotiate their choices and preferences.

3. On which panel will you be a first-row discussant at SoU2017?

‘Free Movement vs. Social Solidarity: Does EU Citizenship Undermine European Welfare States?’ chaired by Prof. Dorothee Bohle

4. What can academics contribute to policy-discussions about the future of Europe?

Provide new empirical data and findings that would identify major policy pitfalls and pose new questions.

5. What are you most looking forward to about SoU?

To hear expert opinions about the most urgent problems of the today.