Education
Ph.D., Indiana University
B.A. Yale University
Professor Hicks joined the New College faculty in 2001. She teaches in the field of comparative politics and directs the program in International and Area Studies. Her courses cover the politics of Russia, China, Central and Eastern Europe, and the European Union. She also teaches the introductory course in Comparative Politics and an advanced seminar in Transitions to Democracy, both of which take a cross-regional approach.
Her research interests center on social movements and democratization in the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and she has conducted research in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria.
Selected Publications
“Going Beyond the State to Strengthen the Rule of Law: Local Activists, Transnational Networks, and Foreign Gold Mining Proposals in Bulgaria” in JoAnn Carmin and Julian Agyeman, eds., Environmental Injustice Beyond Borders: Local Perspectives on Global Inequities. MIT Press, 2011, pp.213-45.
“Setting Agendas and Shaping Activism: The European Union’s Influence on Central European Environmental Movements.” Environmental Politics 13:1 (March 2004), pp.216-33.
“Leveraging Local Action: Grassroots Initiatives and Transboundary Collaboration in the Formation of the White Carpathian Euroregion” with JoAnn Carmin and Andreas Beckmann. International Sociology 18:4 (December 2003), pp.703-25.
“International Triggering Events, Transnational Networks, and the Development of the Czech and Polish Environmental Movements” with JoAnn Carmin. Mobilization 7:3 (October 2002), pp.304-24.
“Catalysts for Sustainability: NGOs and Sustainable Development Initiatives in the Czech Republic” with Andreas Beckmann and JoAnn Carmin in Walter Leal Filho, ed. International Experiences in Sustainability. Bern: Peter Lang Scientific Publishing, 2002, pp.159-77.
“The Psychology of Overlapping Identities: Ethnic, Citizen, Nation and Beyond” with Pamela Johnston Conover in Ray Taras, ed., National Identities and Ethnic Minorities in Eastern Europe. Macmillan Press, 1998, pp.11-48.
Environmental Politics in Poland: A Social Movement Between Regime and Opposition. Columbia University Press, 1996.
“Solidarity’s Self Organization, the Crisis of Rationality and Legitimacy in Poland, 1980-81” with Jack Bielasiak, East European Politics and Societies 4:3 (Fall 1990), pp.489-512.