Anna Gwiazda is Professor of Comparative Politics in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London. Before joining King’s in 2010, she worked at Trinity College Dublin. She has also been a Visiting Scholar at the European University Institute in Florence and the Australian National University. She obtained her PhD degree from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, an M.A. in Political Science from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, and a BA in Economics from the University of Radom, Poland.

Research

Anna’s research broadly engages with questions of democracy and gender, with a particular focus on women’s political representation and participation, gender and political parties and feminist movements.

Currently, Anna is working on several projects. She is a co-investigator on the ERC (UKRI) Synergy Project QUALREP: The Quality of Women’s Political Representation. She is also researching gendered democratic backsliding and democratic resilience as well as political responses to violence against women.

She has edited two special issues: Politics and Gender in Eastern Europe in Politics & Gender and Women’s Political Representation in Central and Eastern Europe in East European Politics.

Anna's book Democracy in Poland (Routledge, 2016) examined the quality of Polish democracy since 1989. The book has been reviewed in several academic journals, including West European Politics, East European Politics, Slavic Review and Democratization.

Teaching

• Gender Politics and Public Policy (postgraduate module)
• Women & Politics (third-year undergraduate module)

Publications

Journal articles

Anna Gwiazda (2026) Women’s Participation and Democratic Resilience. Democratization (published online ahead of print 2026).

Anna Gwiazda (2026) Explaining the Revival of Feminist Movements: Comparative Insights from Poland and South Korea. Asian International Studies Review (published online ahead of print 2026).

Anna Gwiazda (2024) Feminist Protests in Times of Democratic Backsliding: a Comparative Analysis of Hungary and Poland. European Journal of Politics and Gender (published online ahead of print 2024).

Anna Gwiazda and Liana Minkova (2024) Gendered advocacy coalitions and the Istanbul Convention: a comparative analysis of Bulgaria and Poland. International Feminist Journal of Politics, Volume 26, Issue 1, 31–53.

Anna Gwiazda (2023) Gender Ideologies and Polish Political Parties. Government and Opposition, Vol. 58, No. 4, 641-660.

Anna Gwiazda (2021) Introduction to the Symposium on Women’s Political Representation in Central and Eastern Europe. East European Politics, Volume 37, Issue 4 (2021), 593-597.

Anna Gwiazda (2021) Analysing the “what” and “when” of women’s substantive representation: the role of right-wing populist party ideology. East European Politics, Volume 37, Issue 4, 681-701.

Anna Gwiazda (2021) Right-wing Populism and Feminist Politics: the Case of Law and Justice in Poland. International Political Science Review, 2021;42(5), 580-595.

Anna Gwiazda (2019) Introduction to the Special Issue on Politics and Gender in Eastern Europe. Politics & Gender, Volume 15, Issue 2, (June 2019), 175-181.

Anna Gwiazda (2019) The Substantive Representation of Women in Poland. Politics & Gender, Volume 15, Issue 2, (June 2019), 262-284.

Michael Jankowski, Kamil Marcinkiewicz and Anna Gwiazda (2019) The Effect of Electing Women on Future Female Candidate Selection Patterns. Findings from a Regression Discontinuity Design. Politics & Gender, Volume 15, Issue 2, (June 2019), 182-210.

Anna Gwiazda (2017) Women in Parliament: Assessing the Effectiveness of Gender Quotas in Poland. The Journal of Legislative Studies, Volume 23, Issue 3, 326-347.

Anna Gwiazda (2017) Women in Politics: A Review and Future Research Agenda. Studia Polityczne, Polish Academy of Science, Volume 45, No 4, 129-144.

Anna Gwiazda (2015) Women’s Representation and Gender Quotas: the Case of the Polish Parliament. Democratization, Volume 22, Number 4, (June 2015), 679-697.

Anna Gwiazda (2013) The Europeanization of Regional Policy in Poland: Did Political Parties Make a Difference? East European Politics, Volume 29 Number 2, 226-244.

Iain McMenamin and Anna Gwiazda (2011) Three Roads to Institutionalization: Vote-, Office- and Policy-Seeking Explanations of Party Switching in Poland. European Journal of Political Research, Volume 50, Issue 6 (October 2011), 838–866.

Anna Gwiazda (2011) The Europeanization of flexicurity: the Lisbon Strategy’s impact on employment policies in Italy and Poland. Journal of European Public Policy, 2011 Vol. 18 No. 4 (June 2011), 544-563.

Anna Gwiazda (2009) Poland’s quasi-institutionalized party system: the importance of elites and institutions. Perspectives on European Politics and Society, Vol. 10, No 3 (September 2009), 350-375.

Anna Gwiazda (2008) The Parliamentary Election in Poland, October 2007. Electoral Studies, Volume 27, Issue 4 (December 2008), 760-764.

Anna Gwiazda (2008) Party Patronage in Poland: the Democratic Left Alliance and Law and Justice Compared. East European Politics and Societies 22: 4 (November 2008), 802-827.

Anna Gwiazda (2007) Europeanization of Polish Competition Policy. Journal of European Integration, Vol. 29 No.1 (March 2007), 109-131.

Book chapters

Anna Gwiazda (2026) Gender and Politics. In Katarzyna Walecka, Simona Guerra and Fernando Casal Bértoa eds. The Oxford Handbook of Polish Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Anna Gwiazda (2012) The Europeanization of flexicurity. In Susana Borras and Claudio M. Radaelli eds. The Politics of the Lisbon Agenda: Governance Architectures And Domestic Usages Of Europe. London: Routledge.

Anna Gwiazda and Kenneth Benoit (2006) Hungary: united in support, divided by borders. In Thomas König and Simon Hug eds. Policy-making Processes and the European Constitution: A Comparative Study of Member States and Accession Countries. London: Routledge, 119-127.

Anna Gwiazda (2006) Ireland: pragmatism and the EU constitution. In Thomas König and Simon Hug eds. Policy-making Processes and the European Constitution: A Comparative Study of Member States and Accession Countries. London: Routledge, 128-135.

Anna Gwiazda (2006) Poland: the struggle for Nice. In Thomas König and Simon Hug eds. Policy-making Processes and the European Constitution: A Comparative Study of Member States and Accession Countries. London: Routledge, 183-191.