Valeria is a research assistant at the Cologne Center for Comparative Politics where she writes her Ph.D. dissertation under the supervision of Professor André Kaiser. The first part of her PhD thesis, devoted to party finance regulation and the project of GRECO (Group of States against Corruption), has been awarded with the Peter Mair Party Politics Prize in 2015.

Her research interests include methods in comparative political studies with a particular emphasis on surveys, polity and policy changes. And the long-term goal she pursues with her research is to establish an open access system of party and campaign finance monitoring across countries and over time.

Apart from Cologne, at different times she has benefited a lot from her studies and research stays in Moscow (Russia), Konstanz (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Brussels (Belgium), and Exeter (Great Britain).

Bolleyer, Nicole; Smirnova, Valeria (2017): Parliamentary ethics regulation and trust in European democracies, in West European Politics. Accessible at  http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01402382.2017.1290404

Bolleyer, Nicole; von Nostitz, Felix Christopher; Smirnova, Valeria (2016): Conflict regulation in political parties: An account of tribunal decision-making. In: Party Politics. Online first. Available at:  http://ppq.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/04/29/1354068816642804.abstract

Winter term 2016/2017

BA Seminar „Political Representation“

Winter term 2015/2016

BA Seminar “The Political System of the Federal Republic of Germany”