Irina Velicu (2E12-3CF7-E32E)

Curriculum Vitae

Irina Velicu

Irina Velicu is a political scientist working on socio-environmental conflicts in post-communist countries. She is currently the Principle Investigator of the JustFood FCT project, expanding her work by looking at food justice in Europe. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Hawaii (USA) and an MA in International Studies from the University of Warwick (UK). Her work has received funding from national and international research organisations (including the EU-FCT, Marie Curie, Chevening). Dr. Velicu worked as a Marie Curie Experienced Researcher within the ENTITLE European Network of Political Ecology coordinated by Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona). Her recent publications can be found in Antipode, Environmental Politics, Theory, Culture and Society, Ecological Economics, Geoforum, New Political Science, Globalizations.

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Identification

Personal identification

Full name: Irina Velicu

Citation names

Velicu, Irina

Author identifiers

Ciência ID: 2E12-3CF7-E32E

Email addresses

irinavelicu@ces.uc.pt (Professional)

Telephones

Mobile phone

934077648 (Personal)

Knowledge fields

Social Sciences - Political Sciences

Languages

Language	Speaking	Reading	Writing	Listening	Peer-review
English	Proficiency (C2)	Proficiency (C2)	Proficiency (C2)	Proficiency (C2)	Proficiency (C2)
Romanian (Mother tongue)
Spanish; Castilian	Elementary (A2)	Intermediate (B1)	Beginner (A1)	Upper intermediate (B2)	Beginner (A1)
Portuguese	Beginner (A1)	Elementary (A2)	Beginner (A1)	Intermediate (B1)	Beginner (A1)

Education

	Degree	Classification
2011 Concluded	Political Science (Doutoramento) Major in Political Science University of Hawai'i at Manoa Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, United States "To Sell or Not to Sell: Resistance to Capital Economy in Post-communist Romania" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	Very good
2005 Concluded	PAIS, University of Warwick, UK (Mestrado) PAIS, University of Warwick, UK, United Kingdom "Theoretical Foundations for an Open Society as a Basis for the Reform of Global Governance." (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	60
2003 Concluded	Political Science (in English) Department, University of Bucharest, RO (Licenciatura) Political Science (in English) Department, University of Bucharest, Romania "Regional Integration versus Global Disenfranchisement: Enhancing the EU as an International Democratic Actor." (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	9,75

Affiliation

Science

2019 - Current

Auxiliary Researcher (Research)

Employer
Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Estudos Sociais, Portugal

2018 - 2021

Principal Investigator (Research)

Employer
Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Estudos Sociais, Portugal

Others

2014/07/01 - 2019/07/01

Post-doctoral Researcher

Employer
Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal

2013/06/01 - 2014/06/01

Post-doctoral Researcher, Entitle, Marie Curie Project, ICTA-UAB Conduct original research on (post-communist) environmental movements, Deliver Master lectures on Political Ecology Coordination of the

Employer
ICTA, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain

Projects

Grant

	Designation	Funders
2018 - 2021	JustFood: From Alternative Food Networks to Environmental Justice 29355 Principal investigator Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Estudos Sociais, Portugal	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
2013 - 2014/06/01	Environmental Justice Movements in PostCommunism PITN-GA-2011-289374-ENTITLE Post-doc Fellow Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Spain	European Commission

Contract

	Designation	Funders
2019 - 2025/01/31	Democracy and Socio-environmental justice movements in Central and Eastern Europe DL 572016/CP1341/ CT0022 Researcher Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Estudos Sociais, Portugal	Associação para a Inovação e Desenvolvimento da FCT

Outputs

Publications

Book	Velicu, Irina. Socio-Environmental Conflicts in Central and Eastern Europe: Reflections from Romania, Bulgaria and Czech Republic. East European Monographs, Columbia University Press. 2021. Velicu, Irina. Just Food Europe: From Alternative Food Networks to Socio-Environmental Justice. 2021. Velicu, Irina. Political Ecology for Civil Society. 2016. Published
Book chapter	Velicu, Irina. "The Peasant Way: Reflecting on the Political Logic of the Food Sovereignty Movement". In Urban Political Ecology: beyond the Urbanization of Nature Thesis, edited by Maria Kaika; Roger Keil; Tait Mandler; Yannis Tzaninis. 2021. Velicu, Irina. ""Direitos rurais: a ressignificação dos direitos humanos nos movimentos camponeses contemporâneos"". In Palavras para lá da pandemia: cem lados de uma crise. Coimbra, Portugal: CES-UC, 2020. Published Velicu, Irina. "From Mining to Becomings: Rosia Montana’s Movement for Democratic Justice". In Political Ecology for Civil Society. 2015. Published Velicu, Irina. "Becoming something else: Emergent socio-environmental movements in Romania, in Dialogues Against Crisis". In For the Commons (in Greek). Free Flights Publishing: Athens, 2014. Velicu, Irina. "An(Other) Part of the Fall: Stories of Anonymous Women in (Post)communism, in Andreescu". In From Communism to Democracy: Transformations of the Eastern European Female Ideal. Routledge, 2014. Published Velicu, Irina. "Peopling the Globe: New Social Movements". In The SAGE Handbook of Globalization, 629-643. SAGE Publications Ltd, 2014. 10.4135/9781473906020.n36 Velicu, Irina. "Parliamentary Elections and the Economic Crisis". In Elections 2008 – Campaigns, Leaders and Opinion Polls. Bucharest, Romania: Polirom Publishing House, 2009. Published Velicu, Irina. "Public Participation and the Environmental Decision". In Integrated Strategies for Natural Resources Use. Soros Foundation- Romania, 2008. Published
Dictionary entry	Velicu, Irina. "Commons". In ALICE, 2019. https://alice.ces.uc.pt/dictionary/?id=23838&pag=23918&id_lingua=1&entry=24255. Published
Journal article	Velicu, Irina; Mikulas Cernik. ""We are the limits´ Performing Climate Justice in the Czech Klimakemp"". Geoforum (2021): Velicu, Irina. "Quiet no More: The Emergence of Food Sovereignty Movement in Romania". The Journal of Rural Studies (2021): Accepted Velicu, Irina. "Just Food: A Comparative Analysis between Portugal and Romania". Sustainability journal (2021): Velicu, Irina; Stefania Barca. "The Just Transition and Its Work of Inequality". Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy 16 1 (2020): 263-273. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15487733.2020.1814585. Open access • Published Velicu, Irina; Camil Ungureanu; Lucia Alexandra Popartan; Maria Jose Amores; Manuel Poch. "Splitting urban waters: the politicization of water in Barcelona between populism and anti-populism?". Antipode (2020): https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12630. Velicu, Irina. "Prospective environmental injustice: insights from anti-mining struggles in Romania and Bulgaria". Environmental Politics (2019): 1-21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2019.1611178. Published • 10.1080/09644016.2019.1611178 Velicu, Irina. "De-growing environmental justice: Reflections from anti-mining movements in Eastern Europe". Ecological Economics 159 (2019): 271-278. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.01.021. 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.01.021 Velicu, Irina; García-López, Gustavo. "Thinking the Commons through Ostrom and Butler: Boundedness and Vulnerability". Theory, Culture & Society 35 6 (2018): 55-73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0263276418757315. Published • 10.1177/0263276418757315 Velicu, Irina; Kaika, Maria. "Undoing environmental justice: Re-imagining equality in the Rosia Montana anti-mining movement". Geoforum 84 (2017): 305-315. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.10.012. Published • 10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.10.012 Andreucci, Diego; Beltrán, María Jesús; Velicu, Irina; Zografos, Christos. "Capital Accumulation, Hegemony and Socio-ecological Struggles: Insights from the ENTITLE Project". Capitalism Nature Socialism 28 3 (2017): 18-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2017.1355930. Published • 10.1080/10455752.2017.1355930 García López, Gustavo A.; Velicu, Irina; D’Alisa, Giacomo. "Performing Counter-Hegemonic Common(s) Senses: Rearticulating Democracy, Community and Forests in Puerto Rico". Capitalism Nature Socialism 28 3 (2017): 88-107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2017.1321026. Published • 10.1080/10455752.2017.1321026 Velicu, Irina. "Demonizing the Sensible and the ‘Revolution of our Generation’in Rosia Montana". Globalizations 12 6 (2015): 846-858. Published Velicu, Irina. "Moral versus Commercial Economies: Transylvanian Stories". New Political Science 36 2 (2014): 219-237. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07393148.2014.883804. 10.1080/07393148.2014.883804 Velicu, Irina. "The Aesthetic Post-Communist Subject and the Differend of Rosia Montana". Studies in Social Justice 6 1 (2012): 125-141. http://dx.doi.org/10.26522/ssj.v6i1.1072. Published • 10.26522/ssj.v6i1.1072 Velicu, Irina. "To Sell or Not to Sell: Landscapes of Resistance to Neoliberal Globalization in Transylvania". Globalizations 9 2 (2012): 307-321. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2012.658253. Published • 10.1080/14747731.2012.658253
Journal issue	Velicu, Irina; Andreucci, D., Beltrán; M. & Zografos. "Political Ecologies of Capital and Struggle". Capitalism, Nature and Socialism (2017): Published
Magazine article	Velicu, Irina. "We are the limits! Performing Climate Justice in the Czech KlimaKemp", Undisciplined Environments, 2021, https://undisciplinedenvironments.org/2017/07/20/limity-jsme-my-we-are-the-limits-the-first-international-climate-camp-in-czech-republic-horni-jiretin/. Velicu, Irina; António Carvalho. "Pandemic Ontologies of Isolation", Undisciplined Environments, 2020, https://undisciplinedenvironments.org/2020/04/28/pandemic-ontologies-of-isolation/. Velicu, Irina. "Whoever does not have Peasants, Should find Them: The Food Injustice of Pandemics", Undisciplined Environments, 2020, https://undisciplinedenvironments.org/2020/04/09/whoever-does-not-have-peasants-should-find-them-the-food-injustice-of-pandemics/. Velicu, Irina. "O sistema alimentar industrial e a Soberania Alimentar", Buala, 2020, https://www.buala.org/pt/a-ler/o-sistema-alimentar-industrial-e-a-soberania-alimentar. Velicu, Irina; Barca, Stefania; Armieri Marco. "Undisciplining Political Ecology: A Minifesto", Undisciplined Environments, 2019, https://undisciplinedenvironments.org/2019/10/01/undisciplining-political-ecology-a-minifesto/. Velicu, Irina. "Producing Humans and Natures – A Feminist Comment to Kallis and Swyngedouw", Undisciplined Environments, 2017, https://entitleblog.org/2017/05/30/producing-humans-and-natures-a-feminist-comment-to-kallis-and-swyngedouw/. Velicu, Irina. "Rosia Montana’s Movement for Democratic Justice", Undisciplined Environments, 2016, https://undisciplinedenvironments.org/2016/09/13/rosia-montanas-movement-for-democratic-justice/.

Activities

Oral presentation

	Presentation title	Event name Host (Event location)
2020/12/19	Transdisciplinary Research Seminar on Just Food: From Alternative Networks to Socio-Environmental Movements´,	PhD Program in Political Economy, Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território (DINÂMIA'CET) Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. (Lisbon, Portugal)
2020/12/19	Revisiting Environmental Justice https://politikwissenschaft.univie.ac.at/details/news/online-ipw-lecture-irina-velicu-revisiting-environmental-justice-lessons-from-romania-and-bulgar/?tx_news_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=News&tx_news_pi1%5Baction%5D=detail&cHash=e72966ea51ae3c9afae96db44016aac1	Political Ecology Course Institute of Social Ecology, University of Natural Resources & Life Sciences, Vienna (Vienna, Austria)
2020/03/03	´From Peasants to Urban Workers and Back: Debating Agro - Ecology As Socio-Environmental Justice in Romania´, Conference presentation, https://ambiente68.wixsite.com/environment-society/program	International Seminar on Environment and Society, Lisbon University of Lisbon, Institute of Social Sciences, ISS Lisbon (Portugal)
2019/12	Borders and Commons, Seminar of Migrating Rights od the DeOthering	2020 Migrating Rights, FCT project Centro de Estudos Sociais Universidade de Coimbra (Coimbra, Portugal)
2019/11	Undoing Environmental Justice, in Workshop on Face à vulnerabilidade da vida: criatividade social e novas compreensões do ser humano	Facing the vulnerability of life: social creativity and new understandings of the human being, https://ces.uc.pt/en/agenda-noticias/agenda-de-eventos/2019/face-a-vulnerabilidade-da-vida & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90ILbKn84a0&feature=emb_title Centro de Estudos Sociais Universidade de Coimbra (Coimbra, Portugal)
2019/10	JustFood: From AFNs to Socio-Environmental Justice	Lecture for MA course on Inovação social e empreendedorismo social e solidário, https://mestradoisie.wordpress.com/2019/10/22/ciclo-de-conversas-inovacao-social-e-empreendedorismo-social-e-solidario/ FEUC UC (Coimbra, Portugal)
2019/10	From Peasants to Urban Workers and Back. Debating Agro-Ecology as Socio-Environmental Justice in Romania	As múltiplas faces do Antropoceno: política, agência e crise ontológica, Workshop organized by FCT funded project TROPO, event here https://ces.uc.pt/pt/agenda-noticias/agenda-de-eventos/2019/as-multiplas-faces-do-antropoceno Centro de Estudos Sociais Universidade de Coimbra (Coimbra, Portugal)
2019/10	Book discussion «Towards a political economy of degrowth»	Book discussion «Towards a political economy of degrowth» https://ces.uc.pt/en/agenda-noticias/agenda-de-eventos/2019/towards-a-political-economy-of-degrowth-ed Centro de Estudos Sociais Universidade de Coimbra (Coimbra, Portugal)
2019/05	The convergences of two movements, food sovereignty and justice, as theories in praxis	workshop Pensar a comida, pensar o mundo, ALICE, CES-UC, https://ces.uc.pt/pt/agenda-noticias/agenda-de-eventos/2019/oficina-i Centro de Estudos Sociais Universidade de Coimbra (Coimbra, Portugal)
2018/10	Polenta and Cyanide: PostCommunist Insights on Justice	Environmental Humanities conference, “(Um)weltschmerz: An exercise in humility and melancholia” Rachel Carson Centre (Munich, Germany)
2018/09	Presentation @ Summer school of political ecology	Summer school of political ecology Centre for Political Theory, University of Ljubljana (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
2017/08/15	Degrowthing Environmental Justice: Insights from Anti-mining Struggles in Romania and Bulgaria	Post-Socialist/Post-Colonial Rurality Center for Modernity and the Rural World, Telciu, Romania (Telciu, Romania)
2017/04/04	Desiring Limits or How Might Earth Live,	American Association for Geographers, USA American Association for Geographers, USA (Boston, United States)
2016/06/02	Post-socialist Environmental Justice? A ‘Here and Now’ Approach for Romania and Bulgaria”	Political Ecology in the Centre and East of Europe: Green Past, Present and Prospects”, Centre d’étude de la vie politique (Cevipol, Université Libre de Bruxelles, ULB). (Bruxelles, Belgium)

Event organisation

	Event name Type of event (Role)	Institution / Organization
2020/10/14 - Current	Que estratégias para a justiça alimentar em Portugal? Debate a caminho da Cimeira da ONU sobre Sistemas Alimentares (2020/10/14) Seminar (Co-organisor)	Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Estudos Sociais, Portugal
2020/10/13 - Current	Romania and the EU Agricultural Strategies https://www.facebook.com/ecoruralis/videos/351480069406951 (2020/10/13) Workshop	Eco Ruralis, Romania
2020/01 - Current	Seminar on Food Justice and the Peasant Question, ECOSOC https://www.ces.uc.pt/pt/agenda-noticias/agenda-de-eventos/2020/food-justice-and-the-peasant-question-in-europe (2020/01) Seminar (Co-organisor)	Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal
2018 - Current	Organisation of International Workshop: Micro-Politics of Justice (2018) Workshop (Co-organisor)	Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Estudos Sociais, Portugal
2016 - Current	International Conference: Undisciplined Environments (2016) Conference (Other)	KTH Royal Institute of Technology Centre for Autonomous Systems, Sweden
2016 - Current	Political Ecology Reading Group: Environmental (In)Justice (2016) Meeting (Other)	Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Estudos Sociais, Portugal
2020/03/02 - 2020/03/03	Two panels on Ecologia Critica, with ECOSOC scientific group, https://ambiente68.wixsite.com/environment-society/program (2020/03/03) Conference (Co-organisor)	Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

Committee member

	Activity description Role	Institution / Organization
2014/06/01 - Current	Member of the editorial collective of the platform Undisciplined Environments, a space of debate of scholars and activists working on political ecology - https://undisciplinedenvironments.org/ Member	Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Estudos Sociais, Portugal
2014/06/01 - Current	POSTRADE aims primarily at promoting the development of critical reading and of new perspectives on problems that affect today’s societies: welfare State sustainability, the market and the civil society roles on social protection, fragmentation of labour markets, demographic evolution, global environmental change, quality of life and equality of opportunities. Member	Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Estudos Sociais, Portugal
2013/06/01 - Current	Ecosoc, Oficina de Ecologia e Sociedade Member	Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Estudos Sociais, Portugal

Course / Discipline taught

	Academic session	Degree Subject (Type)	Institution / Organization
2015 - 2021	"Democracy in the Twenty-First Century"	The Ecological Crisis (Doutoramento)	Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Estudos Sociais, Portugal
2013 - 2014	Political Ecology	Political Ecology (Mestrado)	ICTA, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain
2010 - 2013	Theories of IR	Globalization, Theories of IR (Licenciatura)	Universitea Spiru Haret, Romania
2010 - 2011	Political Inquiry, Introduction to Global Politics	Political Inquiry, Introduction to Global Politics	University of Hawai'i at Manoa Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, United States
2007 - 2007	Political Inquiry and Analysis	Political Inquiry and Analysis (Licenciatura)	University of Hawai'i at Manoa Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, United States
2005 - 2007	Introduction to Political Science, World Politics	Introduction to Political Science, World Politics (Licenciatura)	University of Hawai'i at Manoa Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, United States

Interview (newspaper / magazine)

	Activity description	Newspaper / Forum
2014/09/21	The Gold-mine of Rosia Montana, Mass protests agains one of the largest open cast gold mine in Europe, <Rosia Montana, Romania	Undisciplined Environments , Transnational Scholar-Activits Platform on Political Ecology, republished from Oikotrives
2013/12/01	The Gold-mine of Rosia Montana also in English, in X-pressed, http://www.x-pressed.org/?xpd_article=interview-with-researcher-irina-velicu-on-the-gold-mine-of-rosia-montana-romania	Oikotrives, Greece
2013/12/01	Mass protests again one of the largest open cast mine in Europe, Rosia Montana, Romania	Oikotrives

Mentoring / Tutoring

	Topic	Student name
2019 - Current	Doing European Citizenship: Eco-villages From Policy to Everyday Practice	Anastasia Oprea
2019 - Current	The conditions for coal mining resistance in Poland and the Czech Republic	Mikuláš Cerník
2019 - Current	Commoning State Democratic Institutions: Addressing trans-formations in Political Subjectivities	Riccardo Buonanno
2019 - Current	Mães proibidas: A retirada de crianças Guarani-Kaiowá, maternidade indígena e etnocídio	Karina Almeida Guimarães Pinhão

Other jury / evaluation

	Activity description	Institution / Organization
2018 - Current	External reviewer or member of selection panel to: project JUSTFOOD - From Alternative Food Networks to Environmental Justice, CES, UC;	Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Estudos Sociais, Portugal
2017 - Current	Peer-reviewer for the international academic journals: Sustainability Science; Environmental Humanities Journal, Annals of American Association of Geographers, International Journal of the Commons, Studia Politica, Journal of Political Ecology,	Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Estudos Sociais, Portugal

Distinctions

Other distinction

2014	FCT Postdoctoral fellowship
2013	Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship
2009	Soros Fellow- Doctoral research
2004	Teaching Assistant
2003	Chevening Scolar, OSI and British Council University of Warwick, United Kingdom