Associate Professor (political science) at the Institute of European Studies of the Jagiellonian University. Concentrates primarily on legitimacy and contestation in external relations of the European Union, EU actorness in international relations especially in the EU’s close neighborhood, as well as collective identification changes in the European Union. Has worked and taught in a number of academic institutions worldwide. She participated in several research projects funded by the Polish National Science Centre, the COST programme, and is currently a co-leader of WP on Future of Europe Debate within the Horizon 2020-funded project EU3D. EU Differentiation, Dominance and Democracy. She participates in the Jean Monnet Network ‘The European Union at the Crossroads of Global Order’ (EUCROSS) and Jean Monnet Network: REACTIK - Reative Economy And Culture inTernatIonal link. Also works within the Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training Network: “Delayed Transformational Fatigue in Central and Eastern Europe: Responding to the Rise of Illiberalism/Populism” (FATIGUE) (2018-2012). She has published several peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and co-edited volumes. In 2020 she received a Fulbright Senior Award to pursue research at the Centre for European and Mediterranean Studies, New York University, USA.
2022, A. Buzogány, O. Costa & M. Góra, “Contesting the EU’s external democratization agenda: an analytical framework with an application to populist parties”, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 35:4, 500-522.
2021, K. Biedenkopf, O. Costa & M. Góra, “Introduction: shades of contestation and politicisation of CFSP”, European Security, 30:3, 325- 343.
2021, M. Góra, “It's security stupid! Politicisation of the EU’s relations with its neighbours”, European Security, 30:3, 439-463.
Magdalena Góra, Kontrola demokratyczna i legitymizacja europejskiej polityki zagranicznej na przykładzie polityki rozszerzenia UE i Europejskiej Polityki Sąsiedztwa, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytety Jagiellońskiego, 2019.
Magdalena Góra, Natasza Styczyńska, Marcin Zubek (red.), Contestation of EU Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy. Actors, Arenas and Arguments, Copenhagen: DJØF Publishing, 2019.
Magdalena Góra, “The European Parliament as an Agenda-setter of EU Policy toward Neighbourhood”, w: Parliamentary Cooperation and Diplomacy in EU external relations, Raube K., Wouters J., Müftüler-Bac M. (red.), Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2019, s. 289-305.
Magdalena Góra, Katarzyna Zielińska, “Competing Visions: Discursive Articulations of Polish and European Identity after the Eastern Enlargement of the EU”, East European Politics & Societies 33(2): 331-356, 2019.
Magdalena Góra, Cathrine Holst, Marta Warat (red.), Expertisation and Democracy in Europe, London: Routledge, 2018.
Magdalena Góra, Katarzyna Zielińska, „Defenders of faith? Victims of secularisation? Polish politicians and religion in the European Parliament”, Religion, State, Society, 42(2-3): 211-226, 2014.
Magdalena Góra, Zdzisław Mach, “Between Old Fears and New Challenges. The Polish Debate on Europe”. W: European Stories. Intellectual Debates in Europe in National Contexts, J. Lacroix, K. Nikolaidis (red.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, s. 221–240.
Góra, M., E. Thevenin, and K. Zielińska. (2026). Political Actors’ Narratives on the Reforms of the European Union. Future Visions of Europe? Edited by Magdalena Góra, Elodie Thevenin, and Katarzyna Zielińska. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Political-Actors-Narratives-on-the-Reforms-of-the-European-Union-Future-Visions-of-Europe/Gora-Thevenin-Zielinska/p/book/9781032963181
Gawrich, A., Góra, M., Posviatenko, V., & Vandergrift, M. (2026). Divergent politicization. The EU’s Eastern Partnership policy in parliamentary discourses in Germany and Poland (2013 to 2022). Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/25739638.2026.2743229
Góra, M., & Styczyńska, N. (2026). Coming of age in Europe? Polish perceptions of power relations within the EU and NATO. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 39(5), 760–783. https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2026.2686892
Kelstrup, J.D., Egendal, W.K., Góra, M., Jensen, M.D. and Styczyńska, N. (2026) ‘ How Do Rotating Council Presidencies Pursue Influence? Evidence From the Polish and Danish Presidencies in 2025’. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.70155.
Góra, M., Thevenin, E., & Zielińska, K. (2025). Nested, Pooled, or Exclusively National? Contested Sovereignty Models in Debates on the Future of Europe. Politics and Governance, 13, Article 10017. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.10017
Góra, M., & Zielińska, K. (2024). The role of religion in sovereignist narratives of European integration: symbolic thickening and identity marking. East European Politics, 40(2), 197–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/21599165.2023.2225030
Kopper, A., A. Szalai, M. Góra (2023). “Populist foreign policy in the Central and Eastern Europe: Poland and Hungary and the shock of the Ukraine crisis.”, in: Populist Foreign Policy: Regional Perspectives of Populism in the International Scene, Philip Giurlando, Daniel Wajner (eds), Palgrave.
Biedenkopf, K., Costa, O., & Góra, M. (2021). Introduction: shades of contestation and politicisation of CFSP. European Security, 30(3), 325–343. https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2021.1964473
Góra, M. (2021). It’s security stupid! Politicisation of the EU’s relations with its neighbours. European Security, 30(3), 439–463. https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2021.1957841
- 2026-2030, QUEST. Towards A Relational Open Strategic Autonomy for EU Foreign Policy, Work Package leader, Horizon Europe project, funded by European Commission. https://soc.kuleuven.be/lines/quest
- 2025-2027, EU Open Autonomy: Conceptualisation, Operationalisation, and Implementation, partner institution leader, funded by CELSA Research Fund: Collaborative research projects. https://soc.kuleuven.be/lines/stratonomy/stratonomy
- 2024-2029, EUFOG. Contested EU Foreign Policy in an Era of Geopolitics, Work Package leader, Horizon Europe MSCA Doctoral Networks, funded by European Commission. https://www.eufog.network/
- 2023-2026 Work Package leader, REDIRECT. The REpresentative DIsconnect: diagnosis and strategies for RECTification, Horizon Europe project funded by the European Commission.
- 2022-2025 leader of Polish team in research project EU-East-G-PL. Politicisation of the Eastern Dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy in Germany and Poland - A Foreign Policy Comparison, conducted in cooperation with Justus Liebig University in Gissen funded by Polish-German Science Foundation.
- 2022-2025 Work Package leader, ‘SHAPEDEM-EU. EU democracy support in its Eastern and Southern Neighbourhoods (2022-2025), Horizon Europe project funded by the European Commission.
- Since 2022, Project Leader of Future Democracy Lab, funded by Excellence Initiative, Priority Area: Future of Society, Faculty of International and Political Studies, Jagiellonian University (previously Global Trends Lab).
- 2018-2023, Jean Monnet Network: REACTIK - cReative Economy And Culture inTernatIonal linK, member of the research team.
- EU3D. EU Differentiation, Dominance and Democracy, European Commission, Horizon 2020, 2019-2023. Work Package co-leader.
- Delayed Transformational Fatigue in Central and Eastern Europe: Responding to the Rise of Illiberalism/Populism (FATIGUE), Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network, European Commission, 2018-2021, member of the research team.
- Jean Monnet Network: The European Union at the Crossroads of Global Order, European Commission, 2018-2021. Coordinator of the research team.
- Kontrola demokratyczna i legitymizacja Europejskiej Polityki Zagranicznej na przykładzie polityki rozszerzenia UE i Europejskiej Polityki Sąsiedztwa, National Science Centre, 2013-2018. Leader of a project.
- RECON Reconstituting Democracy in Europe, European Commission, 6th Framework Programme, 2007- 2011. Member of the research team.
- Jean Monnet Network: REACTIK - Creative Economy and Cultural International Link, European Commission, 2018-2023. Member of the research team.
- In search of transcultural memory in Europe (ISTME), ISCH COST Action IS1203, 2012-2016. Member of the network.