Sergiu MIȘCOIU is Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of European Studies, Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) where he serves as a Director of the Centre for International Cooperation and as Director of the Centre for African Studies (Cestaf). He holds a PhD in Political Science (Paris-Est University), a PhD in History (Babes-Bolyai University), and a habilitation in Political Science (Paris-Est University). He is permenent member and PhD tutor of the LIPHA Laboratory at the University Paris-Est (France), associate professor of the universities of Créteil (France), Szeged (Hungary), and Cheikh Anta Diop Dakar (Senegal), and has been leading five major international research projects. He wrote four books, edited and co-edited 20 volumes and wrote 120 scientific articles and book chapters in English, French, and Romanian. His main research interests are the constructivist and the alternative theories applied to the nation building processes, to populism and to the political transition and transformation in Central-Eastern European and Central and Western Francophone Africa.

Melania-Gabriela Ciot, Ph.D (born 1975), is Associate Professor at the Faculty of European Studies of  University Babeș-Bolyai Cluj-Napoca. She is the Director of “European Paradigm” Doctoral School (in the field of international relations and European studies), the coordinator of MA Program Management and International and European Negotiations and of Center of International Negotiations. Dr. Melania-Gabriela Ciot has an intensive editorial and research activity, which includes books (17), chapters in collective volumes (28), articles and studies in national and international journals (65). She participated in numerous national and international scientific conferences and projects as manager, coordinator or member of research teams. She was State Secretary for European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania between 2017-2019, being appointed Special Representative of Romanian Government for the Relation with European Parliament for the period when Romania held the Presidency of the Council of EU.

Professor, Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest. Director of the Department of International Relations, Security Studies and Public Policies, University of Bucharest. MA in European studies and international relations, Institut Européen des Hautes Etudes Internationales, Nice (1996). SJD, Comparative Constitutional Law, Faculty of Law, Babeş – Bolyai University of Cluj (2002). Representative of the University of Bucharest team part of the European research network Observatory on Local Autonomy, coordinated by the Université de Lille (2015 -). Member of the Academic Curriculum Group (2017 – 2018; 2021 -); Executive Committee (2015 – 2020) of the E.MA – European Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratization of the Global Campus of Human Rights, Venice. Representative of the University of Bucharest in the project CIII-PL-0702-06-1718 – Ethics and Politics in the European Context, part of the CEEPUS III network, coordinated by The Catholic University John Paul II of Lublin; 12 universities from Central and Eastern Europe are part of this network (2012 -). Visiting Professor: Cultural Diplomacy Institute, Berlin (2021); University Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski of Warsaw (2021); Catholic University of Ruzomberok (2021); Global Campus of Human Rights, Venice (2019, 2020, 2021); University of Genoa (2019); The Catholic University John Paul II of Lublin (2019); Institute of Political Science, University of Vienna (2017, 2019); National Tchengchi University, Taiwan (2016); European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratization, Venice (2016, 2017, 2018); University Matej Bel of Banska Bystrica (2016); Universitá degli Studi Firenze (2015); Institut für Sozialethik, Universität Wien (2015); Institute of Political Science, University of Wroclaw (2014, 2017); Trnava University (2014); Umea University (2013); Charles University of Prague (2013); University of Szeged (2012); The Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto (2011); Mykolo Romerio Universitetas, Vilnius (2010); National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (2000). Research associate of: CEVIPOL/Institute for European Studies, Université Libre de Bruxelles (2020 – ); Fridtjof Nansen Institute – Fridtjof Nansen Stiftelsen på Polhøgda – Norvegia, UEFISCDI/EEA Grants, EEA-RO-NO2018-0532 (2020 -); European Commission/Romanian Center for European Policies (2019); Konrad Adenauer Stiftung/Wilfried Martens for European Studies in the framework of the project European perceptions in Romania (2015); Institut für Rechtsphilosophie, Religions-und Kulturrecht, Universität Wien (2006 – 2008); The European Institute of Romania, in the framework of Programme Accession Impact Studies – PAIS 3 (2005);  The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Religious Studies towards EU Integration, a programme of New Europe College – Bucharest  (2004); TMC Asser Institut, Den Haag (2002). He published 22 books as author and co-author. Latest books: Confruntând zilnic pandemia. Reflecţii despre transformarea sistemului politic într-o perioadă de excepţie (Fighting daily with the pandemics. Reflections about the transformation of the political system in a period of exception), Cetatea de Scaun, Târgovişte, 2021; Structuring and destructuring democracy. The keywords that make a polity, Belianum. Matej Bel University Press, 2021.