Ludmila Stuparu is a PhD candidate at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, where her research explores the European Union’s influence on democracy and peace in Eastern Europe. Her doctoral project aims to explain the divergent outcomes of EU democracy promotion in Eastern Europe. It inquires: Why have EU democracy promotion efforts led to divergent outcomes in Eastern European countries? It employs a historical institutionalism approach to identify critical junctures, mechanisms, and processes, explaining why the EU is successful in some countries and limited in others.

Ludmila is also a researcher at the CCDP, contributing to the SNSF-funded project Peace by Other Means? Alternative Practices of Building Peace in a Changing Global Order, where she leads case studies on Madagascar and Kazakhstan.

Previously, Ludmila worked with the Romanian Center for European Policies (CRPE) and the Center for Innovation and Policies in Moldova (CIPM), focusing on Moldova’s European integration. She also served as a policy advisor in the Romanian Parliament, specializing in relations between Romania and the Republic of Moldova.