Rilka Dragneva-Lewers joined the Birmingham Law School in September 2012. Previous to that she was at the School of Law, University of Manchester (2006-2012) and Department of Law, University of Leiden (The Netherlands) (1999-2006). Rilka has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Sussex (2001) the Faculty of Law, University of Trento, Italy (2003 and 2004). Between 1999 and 2004 she was also actively engaged in technical assistance programmes and consulting activities in Eastern Europe for the World Bank, IFC and the EBRD. She was a legal counsel of a large foreign trade company before embarking on her academic career. 

Professor Dragneva’s most recent research explores the following complementary themes: 

• Russia’s use of sovereignty, international law and regional integration as instruments to advance its strategic objectives in the post-Soviet space.
• Eurasian integration as a case of authoritarian regionalism, characterised by economic integration promoted by a regional hegemonic power with global ambitions but also autocratic domestic regime, weak institutions and proven use of coercion.
• The inter-play between different regional integration projects in the wide Eurasian region and the resulting implications for the multilateral international order.
• The European Union’s Eastern policy, in particular its relations with Ukraine and the shifts and complementary approaches necessary to address the challenges resulting from the Russian invasion.

Rilka has participated in a number of high profile research projects, including: H2020 EU-funded collaborative project ‘EU-STRAT: The EU and Eastern Partnership Countries - An Inside-Out Analysis and Strategic Assessment’ (May 2016- April 2019), the AHRC-funded project ‘Ukraine’s Hidden Tragedy: Understanding the Outcomes of Population Displacement from the Country’s War-Torn Regions’ (November 2016- July 2018), and the ESRC-funded project ‘Russia and the EU in the Common Neighbourhood: Export of Governance and Legal (In) Compatibility’ (January 2013-September 2016).

Rilka is a member of the Advisory Boards of Review of Central and East European Law and International Journal of Law and Management.