European Union Expansion, Corruption, and the Rule of Law

Dr. Albana Shehaj is a political scientist with a specialization in international political economy and democratic governance. Her research focuses on corruption and accountability, distributive politics, and the effects of European Union (EU) integration. She investigates the influence of international organizations such as the EU, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Bank on democratic performance, economic development, and migration in Europe's post-socialist countries. Her work is featured in leading journals, including Economics and Politics, European Policy Analysis, Party Politics, and International Interactions. Shehaj holds a PhD in political science from the University of Michigan, as well as an MA in international relations and methodology and a BA in political science and computer science. She has taught courses on the political economy of development, formal methods, comparative politics, and world politics, earning awards for outstanding teaching and methods. In addition to her academic work, Shehaj advises policymakers and the US Department of State on foreign policy, utilizing her expertise in computational methods. Her previous roles include collaborating with the US National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI). She is also the Co-Principal Investigator for the World Values Survey in the United States at the University of Michigan and serves as Program Manager and Seminar Chair at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University.