ECPR Teaching and Learning Summer School

Gabriela Pleschová works at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, where she leads an international collaborative Erasmus+ project aimed at improving internationalization through enhanced competences of university teachers. Her background is in Political Science, and in 2012 she earned an MSc. in Education (Higher Education) from Oxford University. Since 2004, she has been coordinating workshops and other development activities for beginner university teachers. She serves as the co-convenor of the ECPR standing group Teaching and Learning Politics as well as a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Political Science Education. She is the co-editor of Teacher Development in Higher Education. Existing Programs, Program Impact and Future Trends which was published by Routledge in 2012 (with Eszter Simon). In 2019 she became a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (United Kingdom).

Kevin Coffey  is a lecturer teaching in INSEEC London and CREA Geneve specializing in delving modules on International Relations and Critical Thinking. He is devoted to developing innovative teaching practices such as using simulations which lead to greater engagement levels and understanding of IR theories and concepts among students. Kevin received his PhD from University College Dublin in 2015. His research explores the politics of international criminal justice, civil society activism, EU foreign policy in Sub-Saharan Africa and limited statehood. Kevin has taught politics across a diverse range of educational institutions including universities, international think tanks, and primary and secondary schools.

Eszter Simon is Research Fellow in International Relations and Psychology at the Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security at the University of Birmingham. Dr. Simon has expertise in theories of foreign policy analysis, psychological approaches in particular. Her primary research focus is on the Moscow-Washington Hotline in the Cold War, identifying patterns how trust influenced the use of this communication device. She is also interested in the politics of terrorism and insurgency, American foreign policy in general as well as Hungarian foreign policy. She has published several articles and an edited book about teaching and learning issues. Most recently she edited The Handbook of Teaching and Learning Political Science and International Relations (Edward Elgar Publishing) with John Ishiyama and Will Miller. She is Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (United Kingdom).

Agnes Simon has earned her PhD at the University of Missouri. She currently works as academic developer at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. She is experienced in both face-to-face and online teaching having taught for the University of Missouri, Westminster College, Arkansas Tech University, and Park University. Her research focuses of summit diplomacy, US foreign policy, economic sanctions, presidential politics, and strategic voting. She has published book chapters and articles both in Hungarian and English about superpower summitry and Hungarian politics. She is particularly interested in blended and online education. She authored a study that investigates the effectiveness of off-the-shelf board games in teachings theories of foreign policy decision-making (published in European Political Science).