Grzegorz Ekiert is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Government at Harvard University, former Director of Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (2012-2024), former Chair of undergraduate concentration in Social Studies (2000-2006) and Senior Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. His teaching and research interests focus on comparative politics, regime change and democratization, civil society and social movements, and East European politics and societies.
Career
editEkiert is a native of Poland. He graduated with an MA in sociology from Uniwersytet Jagiellonski in Kraków in 1980. He completed his PhD in sociology at Harvard University in 1991. He was a lecturer in sociology at Uniwersytet Jagiellonski (1980–1984). Since 1991, he has been a member of the faculty at Harvard's Department of Government. He was Robert Schuman Fellow at the European University Institute (2020 and 2022), Resident Fellow in Metaforum Institute, University of Leuven, Belgium (2019), member of the Advisory Board Wissenschftszentrum Berlin fur Sozialforschung (2016-2024), External Examiner in Politics, Public Administration and Global Studies at University of Hong Kong (2012-2018), Jean Monet Fellow at the European University Institute (2001–2002), The 21st Century COE Program Fellow at Hokkaido University (2007), Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at European University Institute (2009–2010) and a visiting fellow at Collegio Carlo Alberto (2010 and 2014).
Publications
editHe is the author of Ruling by Other Means: State-Mobilized Movements (co-edited with Elizabeth J. Perry and Yan Xiaojun (2020), The State Against Society: Political Crises and Their Aftermath in East Central Europe (1996), Rebellious Civil Society: Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland, with (Jan Kubik 1999) that was awarded the Orbis Book prize by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies and Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Assessing the Legacy of Communist Rule, (co-edited with Stephen Hanson 2003). He edited special issues of East European Politics and Societies on the EU Eastward Enlargement (with Jan Zielonka) 2003 and on Democracy in Postcommunist World (2007) and special issue of Taiwan Journal of Democracy (2012). Over 100 of his papers appeared in numerous social science journals in the US, Europe and Asia and in many edited volumes. He is a member of several advisory boards in social sciences research institutions and NGOs.
Ekiert is also Senior Faculty Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Ukrainian Research Institute, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovations at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is also a member of the Club of Madrid Advisory Committee and funding member of the Concilium Civitas and Collegium Civitas in Warsaw, Poland.
Education
editM.A. Jagiellonian University, Poland, Institute of Sociology (1980); M.A. Harvard University, Department of Sociology (1987); Ph.D. Harvard University, Department of Sociology (1991)
Research interests
editComparative politics, regime change and democratization, civil society, collective action and social movements, and East European politics and society.
Current projects
editHis current projects explore patterns of civil society development in new democracies in Central Europe and East Asia, the state of democracy in postcommunist world, the EU membership impact on post-communist democracies, and state mobilized contention in authoritarian and hybrid regimes.
Selected publications
editRuling by Other Means: State-Mobilized Movements, (co-editors Elizabeth J. Perry and Yan Xiaojun), Cambridge University Press 2020
Democracy and Authoritarianism in the Twenty-First Century,” in: Post-Pandemic Features: Sociology of Crisis Experience in Central and Eastern Europe, edited by Kaja Gadowska and Anna Giza, Brill Publishers 2024, 215-230.
Civil Society as a Threat do Democracy,” in: The Power of Populism and People, edited by Nathan Stoltzfus and Chris Osmar, Bloomsbury Academic, London 2021, pp, 53-71.
Civil Society Approach,” Handbook of Political, Social, and Economic Transformations, edited by Wolfgang Merkel, Raj Kollmorgen and Hans-Jurgen Wagener, Oxford University Press 2019, pp. 151-160
The Study of Protest Politics in Eastern and Central Europe in the Search of Theory (co-author Jan Kubik) in: Routledge Handbook of East European Politics, edited by Adam Fagan and Petr Kopecky, Routledge 2018, pp. 197-211.
Civil Society and Three Dimensions of Inequality in Post-1989 Poland (co-authors Jan Kubik and Michal Wenzel) Comparative Politics, Special Issue on Civil Society in an Era of Inequality, (April 2017) Vol. 49, No. 3, pp. 331-350
Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Assessing the Legacy of Communist Rule, (co-editor Stephen Hanson), Cambridge University Press, 2003
Rebellious Civil Society. Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland, (co-author Jan Kubik, Rutgers University) University of Michigan Press 1999
The State Against Society: Political Crises and Their Aftermath in East Central Europe, Princeton University Press 1996
“Three Generations of Research on Post-Communist Politics – A Sketch,” in: East European Politics and Societies (May 2015) Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 323–337.
“Myths and Realities of Civil Society,” (co-author Jan Kubik) Journal of Democracy (January 2014) Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 46–58.
“Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe 100 years On,” (co-author Daniel Ziblatt) in: East European Politics and Societies (February 2013) Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 88–105
“The End of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe: The Last Middle Class Revolution?” in: Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 21, 2010, pp. 99–123.
“Dilemmas of Europeanization: Eastern and Central Europe after the EU Enlargement, Acta Slavica Iaponica 2008, vol. 25, pp. 1–28
“Democracy in Postcommunist World: An Unending Quest,” co-authors Jan Kubik and Milada Anna Vachudova), East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 21: 1, 2007, pp. 1–24.
"Introduction: Academic Boundaries and Path Dependencies Facing The EU's Eastward Enlargement," (co-author Jan Zielonka) special issue of East European Politics and Societies, 2003, pp. 2–19.
"The State after State Socialism: Poland in Comparative Perspective," in: The Nation-State in Question, edited by John Hall and John Ikenberry, Princeton University Press 2003, pp. 291–320.
"Contentious Politics in New Democracies: Hungary, the former East Germany, Poland and Slovakia," (co-author Jan Kubik), World Politics (July 1998) 50, 4, pp. 547–581