Oana Buta

Oana oversees the management of the project Minority Protection for EU Accession (MPA) which aims to assist Serbia in meeting Chapter 23 benchmarks related to the protection of national minorities by enhancing the implementation of pertinent laws and policies. In addition, she serves as the Assistant Editor for the Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minorities Issues in Europe (JEMIE).

Before rejoining the ECMI, she was a doctoral fellow at the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences, supported by the German Research Foundation. Oana's PhD studies were also funded by the "Step by Step Scholarship" provided by the Women's Representatives at the University of Bamberg. In early 2023, she successfully defended her PhD thesis titled "Manipulation and Threat: The Dismissal of Roma Candidates." Her thesis investigates the nomination of Roma candidates by mainstream parties during the 2016 local elections in Romania, employing both quantitative and qualitative research methods. She earned a double degree in European Studies (M.A./M.Sc.) from the University of Flensburg and the University of Southern Denmark, and a BA in Political Science from the University of Bucharest. Her research interests encompass the Roma and minority groups, gender, intersectionality, political representation, and party politics.