Galina Selivanova, having acquired a Masters in Sociology from Saint Petersburg State University and the University of Bielefeld, is currently a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore in Italy. She is also engaged in several research projects at the Laboratory for Internet Studies, located at the Higher School of Economics in Saint Petersburg with projects investigating effects of social media on local civil society groups.  Her dissertation focuses on the issues of state – civil society interrelations in Eastern Europe, social movement efforts in establishing clean and fair elections in authoritarian states and process of democratization.

Research interests: electoral fraud, authoritarian elections, and Eastern Europe