Bernadett Szél is a sociologist, political economist, and futurist whose research focuses on democratic resilience, authoritarian influence, and sovereignty under conditions of deepening social and political inequality. Her work examines how democratic backsliding generates institutional vulnerability and constrains political participation, with particular attention to how autocratic pressure can be identified and resisted. Her research has a regional […]
Bernadett Szél is a sociologist, political economist, and futurist whose research focuses on democratic resilience, authoritarian influence, and sovereignty under conditions of deepening social and political inequality. Her work examines how democratic backsliding generates institutional vulnerability and constrains political participation, with particular attention to how autocratic pressure can be identified and resisted. Her research has a regional focus on Central and Eastern Europe, the European Union, Taiwan, and East Asia. She has served as George Soros Practitioner Chair at CEU and held research positions as Taiwan Fellow at Soochow University, as well as research appointments at the Chang Fo-chuan Center for Human Rights and the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. Her work also engages with structural inequalities and gender-based violence, including Violence Against Women in Politics. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Corvinus University of Budapest and employs qualitative institutional analysis combined with foresight-informed comparative approaches.