From November 2018 

Dr Aleksandra Zdeb completed her PhD at the Centre for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz in March 2019. She joined Queen's as a postdoc on the ESRC project Exclusion Amid Inclusion in November 2018 and contributed to the DfE funded "Civil Conflict in Post-Conflict Societies" (April 2019-May 2020). She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of the National Education Commission in Kraków and a Visiting Researcher at Queen’s University Belfast. She teachs at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Holding a Ph.D. in Law and Politics from the University of Graz, she previously researched the role of civil society and marginalized groups in fostering good governance in post-conflict societies. Her research focuses on conflict management and post-communist democratization, particularly the efficacy of institutional arrangements during post-conflict regime transitions and good governance in multiethnic cities. Aleksandra published on post-conflict reconstruction and state-building in Problems of Post-Communism, Ethnopolitics, Nationalities Papers, New Eastern Europe, and Representation.

Books & Edited Volumes

Sawicka, M., Gruszczak, P., & Zdeb, A. (Eds.). Democracy and its fragility: Mapping the unstable equilibrium. Routledge (forthcoming).

Zdeb, A. (2022). Ordynarna demonstracja władzy. O zarządzaniu konfliktem w Bośni i Hercegowinie [Vulgar Display of Power. On the Management of Conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina]. Universitas.

Korzeniewska-Wiszniewska, M., & Zdeb, A. (Eds.). (2015). Bosnia and Herzegovina and its political kaleidoscope: General elections 2014 – Report. Księgarnia Akademicka.

Journal Articles

Zdeb, A. (2025). Parallel governance in the post-communist space: Institutionalizing territorial autonomies in the Western Balkans. Problems of Post-Communism. https://doi.org/10.1080/10758216.2025.2459265.

Zdeb, A., & Mikhael, D. (2025) Little fish in big ponds: The pathways to inclusion for micro-minorities in power-sharing societies. Swiss Political Science Review (forthcoming).

Zdeb, A., & Vermeersch, P. (2024). Horizontal redistribution and Roma inclusion in the Western Balkans: Examining the exclusion amid inclusion dilemma. Social Inclusion, 12. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.7608.

Zdeb, A. (2023). Szukając niezależności [Looking for autonomy]. Politeia, 20(86). https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.20.2023.86.11.

Zdeb, A. (2023). Doomed to fail? Rebound effect and conflict management problems in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Central European and Balkan Studies, Vol. XXXII. https://doi.org/10.4467/2543733XSSB.23.010.18436.

Zdeb, A. (2022). Accommodating liberal consociations: The District Brčko case and the role of informal institutions in the consociational model. Ethnopolitics, 21(5). https://doi.org/10.1080/17449057.2021.1973729.

McCulloch, A., & Zdeb, A. (2022). Veto rights and vital interests: Formal and informal veto rules for minority representation in deeply divided societies. Representation, 58(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/00344893.2020.1778065.

Zdeb, A. (2017). Facing an institutional change in Mostar: A litmus test for Bosnia. Nationalities Papers, 45(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2016.1235142.

Zdeb, A. (2016). The need to have something ‘of their own’: Croat parallel institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Swiss Political Science Review, 22(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/spsr.12231.

Zdeb, A. (2016). Prud and Butmir processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Intra-ethnic competition from the perspective of game theory. Ethnopolitics, 16(4). https://doi.org/10.1080/17449057.2016.1143661.

Book Chapters

Zdeb, A. (2025) Unintended consequences of consociational institutions: The case of Northern Ireland. In R. Taylor & T. Agarin (Eds.), Consociational powersharing in Northern Ireland. Routledge (forthcoming).

Zdeb, A., & Sawicka, M. (2025). Democracy – A fragile notion. In M. Sawicka et al. (Eds.), Democracy and its fragility: Mapping the unstable equilibrium. Routledge (forthcoming).

Zdeb, A. (2025) The fragility of post-conflict consociational democracies: Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia in the quest for democratic stability. In M. Sawicka et al. (Eds.), Democracy and its fragility. Routledge (forthcoming).

Belloni, R., & Zdeb, A.  (2025) Consociationalism in Bosnia-Herzegovina: How to build an illiberal state. In H. Preljević, E. Hadžikadunić, M. Mulalić, & M. Krupalija (Eds.), Shifting paradigms: Three decades after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement. Springer (forthcoming).

Zdeb, A. (2025) Structural challenges and spoilers within Bosnia and Herzegovina's institutional system. In H. Preljević et al. (Eds.), Shifting paradigms: Three decades after the Dayton Peace Agreement. Springer (forthcoming).

Zdeb, A. (2019). Ethno-nationalism and political conflict in Bosnia. In S. Ratuva et al. (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of ethnicity. Palgrave Macmillan.

Zdeb, A. (2014). Odbudowa dysfunkcyjnych państwa podzielonych: O aktualności konsocjonalizmu [Rebuilding dysfunctional divided states: On the actuality of consociationalism]. In R. Kłosowicz (Ed.), Państwa dysfunkcyjne i międzynarodowe wysiłki zmierzające do ich naprawy. WUJ.

Zdeb, A. (2014). Bośnia Boś(š)niacka? Nation-building w warunkach wieloetniczności [Bosnian(k) Bosnia? Nation-building and multiethnicity]. In M. Babić & I. Jakimowicz-Ostrowska (Eds.), Bałkany w XXI wieku: Problemy konsolidacji i integracji. Uniwersytet Warszawski.

Zdeb, A. (2013). Konstytucyjne przesłanki rozpady Jugosławii: Wzorzec dla Bośni i Hercegowiny? [Constitutional premises for the breakup of Yugoslavia: A model for Bosnia and Herzegovina?] In P. Chmielewski & S. L. Szczesio (Eds.), Bałkany Zachodnie między przeszłością a przyszłością. WUŁ.

Online Articles & Reports

Zdeb, A. (2022). The never-ending story of building Bosnia-Herzegovina. Heinrich Böll Stiftung. https://www.boell.de/en/2022/03/23/never-ending-story-building-bosnia-herzegovina.

Zdeb, A. (2022). The unfinished business of building Bosnia-Herzegovina. Green European Journal. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/the-unfinished-business-of-building-bosnia-herzegovina.

Zdeb, A. (2022). Towards a dissolution? Lex Inzko and the fight over history. New Eastern Europe, 6(54).

Zdeb, A. (2020). Grim reality after a colorful revolution. New Eastern Europe, 3(41).

Zdeb, A. (2019). When the state turns against its own citizens, resistance becomes duty? New Eastern Europe, 5(38).

Zdeb, A. (2018). A federation like no other: The case of Bosnia-Herzegovina. 50 Shades of Federalism. http://50shadesoffederalism.com/case-studies/federationlike-no-case-bosnia-herzegovina/.

 PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH PROJECTS

2023 – 2024 Team member ‘Mapping Democratic Fragility’ - Jagiellonian University, Kraków

2019 – 2020 Post-doc Researcher ‘Helping People Help Themselves: The Role of Civil Society in Governance of Post-conflict Societies’ (UK Department for the Economy - Global Challenge Research), Queen’s University Belfast, UK

2018 – 2019 ESRC Post-doc Researcher  ‘Exclusion amid Inclusion: Power-Sharing and Non-Dominant Minorities’, Queen’s University Belfast, UK

2017 Research associate ‘The Fragile Interplay of External Citizenship and Domestic Political Inclusion in Ethnically Divided Societies’  Centre for Democracy Studies Aarau; University of Zurich, Switzerland

2014 – 2016 Project Lead ‘Strategies of Ethnic Conflict Management in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Power-sharing in Mostar and Brčko’ (Polish National Science Center Foundation), Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland

2014 – 2015 Project Lead ‘Bosnia and Herzegovina and its Political Kaleidoscope. General Elections 2014’, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland

2012 Project Lead ‘Serbia 2012. Social and Cultural Aspects of Parliamentary Elections’, Jagiellonian University in Kraków