She obtained her PhD in Economic History with Uppsala University in 2003. In 2012, she was promoted to Associate Professor in Political Science at Department of Government, Uppsala University.
Research interests
Branka’s research encompasses globalization, ideological change, development theories and the political economy of post-socialist transformations, including the role of democracy, history and ethnicity for the configuration of the market institutions.
Her research within REMESO addresses the interplay between global governance, EU enlargement and irregular migration, as well as discussions on precarization of labour, the social dimension of globalization and EU Social Model.
Together with Carl-Ulrik Schierup she initiated Swedish Research Links project Migration and Development. What Space for Civil Society in Global Governance? (MIGLINK). The project, supported by the Swedish Research Council and initiated in 2014, connects researchers in Sweden, Mexico and Turkey and several civil society organizations mobilizing for the promotion migrants’ rights within the UN High Level Dialogue on as well as the Global Forum for Migration and Development.
She has also studied EU strategy for post-communist transformation of the Western Balkan and Bosnia-Hercegovina with a focus on political and socioeconomic reforms, informal economy, international migration and changing working life. Within the project “Citizens at Heart”, financed by the Swedish research Council, she has together with Li Bennich-Björkman investigated integration policy in Sweden, Germany and UK with a focus on integration of highly skilled Bosnian refugees.
Teaching and administration
Branka has taught and designed courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels for diverse student groups at various academic institutions in different countries and different languages.
Branka has coordinated REMESO Seminar and REMESO Graduate School since 2013 and facilitated several graduate courses. She has been responsible for master courses Scientific Representation and Method (master program Social and Welfare Studies) and Class, Labour Migration and Globalization (International master program in Ethnic and Migration studies).
She also taught in a visiting capacity at Faculty of Economics, Sarajevo University, Bosnia-Hercegovina; Department of Social Work, Vilnius University, Lithuania; Critical Development Studies at Zacatecas University, Mexico and African Centre for Migration and Society, Witwatersrand University, South Africa.