Dr. Maria-Gabriela Manea

Vita

Maria-Gabriela Manea is postdoc lecturer at the Department of Political Science, Chair of International Politics led by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rüland. She holds a doctorate in Political Science from the Albert-Ludwig University Freiburg. Mrs. Manea studied Political Science (licenta) and International Relations (Master of Arts) at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Political and Administrative Sciences (international programm in French language) as well as Social Sciences (Master of Arts, Global Studies Programm in English language) at the Albert-Ludwig University Freiburg (Germany), Kwuazulu-Natal University Durban (South Africa) and Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi (India). She was awarded the Heinrich Popitz-Preize for the Best Graduate in Social Sciences (2004) of the University of Freiburg.

She filled in several positions at the Chair of International Politics (University of Freiburg). She was one of the coordinators of the interdisciplinary research network, funded by BMBF (Federal MInistry of Education and Research, Germany), "Southeast Asian Studies: Grounding Area Studies in Social Practice". She was a praedoc lecturer, teaching courses in international politics and coordinating the Erasmus academic exchange at the Department of Political Science. Prior to this, Mrs. Manea was the principal researcher in a two-year research project "Parliaments and Security Sector Governnace: Comparative Analysis of Indonesia and Nigeria", funded by DSF (German Peace Research Foundation). She was a co-organizer of international conferences and policy retreats and published in international peer-reviewed journals. She conducted field research in several countries of Southeast Asia where she was a visiting fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore and at the Universitas Indonesia/FISIP (Jakarta-Depok Campus, Indonesia) as well as in Nigeria (Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan, Jos).

Her dissertation - "The Constitution of Collective Identities and Interregional Human Rights Norms Diffusion: Analyzing Human Rights Discourses and Interactions in the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Relations and Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) Process" - investigates the relationship between processes of interregional human rights norm diffusion in the EU-ASEAN and ASEM frameworks and the constitution of regional collective identities conforming (or not) with international human rights norms in Southeast Asia/ASEAN.  

Fields of Interest

• Theories of international relations (social constructivism)
• Identity and norms (human rights) in international politics
• Globalization (inter-regionalism, regionalism) and international change
• Regional integration in Southeast Asia (human rights, democratization and security)
• Qualitative research methods (discourse analysis, process tracing, comparative methods)

Teaching

Projects

Coordinator of the interdisciplinary BMBF Project "Southeast Asian Studies: Grounding Area Studies in Social Practice" (15 November 2009-31 October 2013)

The project pursues an interdisciplinary concept of research on Southeast Asia involving four disciplines Political Science, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Economics and Asian History. Participating scholars conceptualize Area Studies as relational and pursue transculturally-oriented research beyond Orientalism and Occidentalism.

Their research focuses on everyday social practice in its complex plurality and sociocultural diversity. This is connected to cultural transfer and localization processes.

The mandala concept of Southeast Asian Studies at Freiburg is designed as a program composed of concentric circles radiating from an interdisciplinary and international research and teaching program.Other components such as methodology training, regional networking, graduate studies, the alumni program and policy oriented knowledge transfer are closely linked with the research core.

Main research topics:

• Democratization as a multilayered process of regional, national and sub-national levels
• Concepts of ‘Self’ and ‘Other’
• Decentralization from economic, political and cultural perspectives
• Southeast Asian Regionalism

www.southeastasianstudies.uni-freiburg.de

Research Project (together with Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rüland)/ (November 2007-September 2009)

The research project “Parliaments and Security Sector Governance” is a comparative study based on extensive fieldworks on the role played by Parliaments in the establishment of democratic oversight of the armed forces in new democracies, such as Indonesia and Nigeria. The study examines under which conditions parliaments effectively contribute to the democratic reform of the armed forces. For it traces the ‘modes’ of interaction between the parliament and the military during the reform process. Detailed examination of interaction within relevant issue-areas - such as legislation and constitutional review, procurement, defence budgeting, human rights and military justice, etc. – are the core of a methodology based on small case studies analysis by means of process-tracing.

International Conferences

•    Consortium of Southeast Asian Studies in Asia/SEASIA – “First Inaugural Conference”, 12-13 December 2015, Kyoto, Japan

•    ISA Convention ‘Global IR and Regional Worlds: A New Agenda for International Studies’, 18-21 February 2015, New Orleans/Louisiana, US.

•    IPSA 23rd World Congress of Political Science ‘Challenges of Contemporary Governance’, 19-24 July 2014, Montreal/Quebec, Canada. 

•    University of Freiburg, Co-Organizer International Conference on Decentralization and Democratization in Southeast Asia in the framework of the Southeast Asian Studies Project at the University of Freiburg, BMBF, 15-17 June 2011, www.decentralizationconference.de.

•    University of Maastricht, Handbook “Europe-Asia Relations” – Authors Conference, 8/9 September 2011.

•    ECPR Congress Potsdam, Co-organizer together with Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rüland of the Conference Section on “Security Sector Reform and Democratic Consolidation”, 10-12 September 2009.

•    University of Freiburg, “ASEAN at 40”, Quandt Stiftung, May 2007.

Publications

Dissertation:

Manea, MG (2015) The Constitution of Collective Identities and Interregional Human Rights Diffusion: Analyzing Human Rights Interaction and Discourses in EU-ASEAN Relations and the ASEM Process, thesis submitted at the University Freiburg in February 2015.

Journal Articles (peer reviewed)

Manea, M.G. (2015) The Claims of the ASEAN to Human Rights and Democracy: What Role for Regional Civil Society? ASIEN 136 (July 2015): 73-97, Issue on “Civil society and Democratization in Asia” (refereed).

Manea, M.G. (2009) How and why interaction matters: ASEAN's regional identity and human rights, Cooperation and Conflict, Journal of the Nordic International Studies Association, Vol. 44 (1): 27–49 (refereed), http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0010836708099720.

Manea, M.G. (2008) Human rights and the interregional dialogue between Asia and Europe: ASEAN-EU relations and ASEM, The Pacific Review, Vol. 21(3): 369–396 (refereed), http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09512740802134257

Edited Books

Manea, M.G.  (with Jürgen Rüland and Hans Born) Eds. (2012) The Politics of Military Reform: Lessons from Indonesia and Nigeria, Global Power Shift, Berlin: Springer. 

Short Monograph (Research Report)

Manea, M.G. (with Jürgen Rüland) (2012) How Much an Actor and under Which Logics of Action: Parliamentary-Military Relations in Indonesia and Nigeria, Osnabrück: German Foundation for Peace Research. 

Book Chapters

Manea, M.G. (2013) “The Institutional Dimension of EU-ASEAN / ASEAN Plus Three Inter-regional relations” (chapter) in T. Christiansen, E. Kirchner and P. Murray (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of EU-Asia Relations, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Manea M.G. (with Jürgen Rüland) (2012) Taking Stock of Military Reforms in Nigeria” (chapter) in J. Rüland, M.G. Manea and H. Born (eds.), The Politics of Military Reform: Lessons from Indonesia and Nigeria, Global Power Shift, Berlin: Springer.

Manea, M.G. (with Jürgen Rüland) (2012) “The Legislature and Military Reform in Indonesia” (chapter) in J. Rüland, M.G. Manea and H. Born (eds.), The Politics of Military Reform: Lessons from Indonesia and Nigeria, Global Power Shift, Berlin: Springer.

Manea, M.G. (with Jürgen Rüland) (2012) “The Politics of Military Reform in Indonesia and Nigeria” (introductory chapter) in J. Rüland, M.G. Manea and H. Born (eds.), The Politics of Military Reform: Lessons from Indonesia and Nigeria, Global Power Shift, Berlin: Springer.

Book Reviews, Conference Reports & Media 

Manea, M.G. (2017) – Interview on Street Protests in Romania “Johannis ist sehr einsam”, Freiburger Weekly Newspaper “Der Sonntag”, 12 February 2017, S. 7. 

Manea, M.G. (2016) – Interview on Parliamentary Elections in Romania, 8 December 2016, https://rdl.de/beitrag/psd-geht-als-st-rkste-partei-aus-rum-nischen-parlamentswahlen-hervor

Manea, M.G. (2016) Book Review “Kampong Boy” by M. Ravi in Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia no. 19.

Manea, M.G. (2016) Conference Report on the 1st Inaugural Conference of the Consortium of Southeast Asian Studies in Asia, 12-13 December 2015, Kyoto, Japan, published in ASIEN. 

Conference Papers and Presentations

„Sicherheit in Südost- und Ostasien: Die Rolle externer Akteure – die EU und die USA“, Asien im Fokus: Souveränität, Sicherheit, Nachhaltigkeit? Weingarten Tagung, 18.-20. November 2016.

“Sources of Democratization and the Construction of Region: Analyzing Democracy and Human Rights Discourses in ASEAN”, at the Conference of the Consortium of Southeast Asian Studies in Asia/SEASIA, 12-13 December 2015, Kyoto, Japan.

„Die Rolle der Zivil Gesellschaft bei der regionalen Institutionalisierung der Menschenrechte in ASEAN (Südostasien)“, Menschen- und Bürgerrechte in Asien: Zwischen Macht und Ohnmacht, Weingarten Tagung, 13.-15. November 2015.

“How does Norm diffusion shape ‘regional worlds’: The Regionalization of human rights in ASEAN?”, ISA Convention ‘Global IR and Regional Worlds: A New Agenda for International Studies’, 18-21 February 2015, New Orleans/Louisiana, US.

“EU’s Foreign Policy Identity: Do interregional relations with ASEAN shape it?” at the IPSA 23rd World Congress of Political Science ‘Challenges of Contemporary Governance’, 19-24 July 2014, Montreal/Quebec, Canada. 

“The Institutional Dimension of EU-ASEAN / ASEAN Plus Three Inter-regional relations”, Paper presented at the Conference on “The Relations between the EU and Asia”, University of Maastricht, 8/9 September 2011.

"Parliamentary Oversight and Civilian Control of the Armed Forces in Indonesia and Nigeria" (Freiburg, 24.06.2010), Talk delivered at the Arnold-Bergstrasser-Institut Freiburg.

"How much an Actor and under which Logics of Action: Parliament in the Democratic Control of the Armed Forces in Indonesia and Nigeria”, with Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rüland, ECPR 5th Conference Potsdam, 10-12 September 2009.

 “Human Rights in Indonesia: between regional integration and domestic change”, Paper presented at the KAS Workshop ’60 Years of Human Rights’, University of Freiburg, June 2008.

“European Human Rights Regime”, Paper given in the Research Colloquium of the FISIP/Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, March 2008.

“Human Rights and ASEAN”, Paper given at the international Conference ’40 Years of ASEAN:  Towards the Fifth Decade’, University of Freiburg, May 2007.