Dr Tamara Popic, BA, University of Belgrade; MA, Humboldt University Berlin; PhD, European University Institute.

Profile

Tamara joined QMUL in 2021 coming from the European University Institute (EUI, Florence). Her research lies at the intersections of Public Policy and Comparative Politics, but also engages with Social Attitudes and Political Communication scholarship. More specifically, her research addresses two core dimensions of the politics of healthcare. First concerns the effect of political competition, institutions and ideas on healthcare policy making. Second dimension looks at attitudes toward healthcare, in particular how these attitudes are shaped by policy feedback effects and factors such as political ideology. More recently, her research explores the role of political communication in understanding how governments frame unpopular health policy choices. 

Tamara is the author of Health Reforms in Post-Communist Eastern Europe: The Politics of Policy Learning (2023, Palgrave Macmillan) and a co-editor (with E. Immergut, K. Anderson and C. Devitt) of Health Politics in Europe: A Handbook (2021, Oxford University Press). Her work has also appeared in various academic journals including Journal of Social Policy, Health Policy, Journal of European Social Policy and Social Policy and Administration. 

Before coming to QMUL, Tamara was a Max Weber Fellow at the EUI, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Lisbon, where she worked at project "Healthdox: The Politics of Health State Future", and a research coordinator of "NORFACE - The Welfare State Futures" at the EUI.  

Before teaching at QMUL, she taught at the University of Duesseldorf, James Madison University in Florence and at the University of Pompeu Fabra.  

Teaching

POL318 Research Project 

POLM056 Life, Death and Money: Welfare State in Theory and Practice

POLM093 Public Management and Governance

POLM025 Evaluation and Delivery of Public Policy

POLM025 Evaluation and Delivery of Public Policy (Distance Learning)

Research

Research Interests:

Tamara’s research interests include public and social policy, comparative politics, public opinion, and political communication. I am currently the Principal Investigator of the project "Government Discourse in the Context of Austerity-Driven Health Policy Reforms in Portugal, Ireland and Greece", funded by European University Institute and Queen Mary University of London.

Datasets:

Immergut, E. M., Burlacu, D., Roescu, A., Wegemann, M., Popic, T., Stolarov-Demuth, G. HEALTHDOX Health Politics in Europe Dataset.

Examples of research funding:

British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant for project 'Public Responses to Austerity in Healthcare: The Role of Ideology & Government Rhetoric' - £9,997

QMUL SPIR GRSF Grant for project "Government Discourse in the Context of Austerity-Driven Health Policy Reforms in Portugal, Ireland and Greece" - £1,930

2021-2022 EUI ESR Grant for project "Government Discourse in the Context of Austerity-Driven Health Policy Reforms in Portugal, Ireland and Greece" - € 2,810.

2020 EUI RC funding for project "Responding to COVID-19: Government Action, Government Rhetoric, and Public Trust", Co-PI with E. Immergut (European University Institute) and D. Burlacu (University of Newcastle) - € 19,000.

2019-2021 Max Weber Program Postdoctoral Grant - € 50,000.

2009-2013 EUI Department of Social and Political Science Conference Fund - € 1,600 over four years.

2010 Paderewski Grant for Doctoral Research, European Centre Natolin - € 2,000.

2009-2013 PhD Research Grants Awarded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European University Institute - € 50,000.

2008-2009 Graduate School Scholarship Awarded by the Duke University USA - € 74,000.

Publications

Books

Popic, T. (2023) Health Reforms in Post-Communist Eastern Europe: The Politics of Policy Learning, Palgrave Macmillan

Immergut, E. M., Anderson, K. M., Devitt, C. and Popic, T. (2021) Health Politics in Europe: A Handbook, Oxford University Press, ISBN: 9780198860525.

Journal articles

Popic, T. and Burlacu, D. (2022) Welfare Attitudes in Crisis: The Role of Ideology in Healthcare Satisfaction in Portugal and Ireland, Journal of Social Policy, Published online. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279422000332

Popic, T. and Moise, A. (2022) 'Governments' Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Eastern and Western Europe: The Role of Health, Political and Economic Factors', East European Politics, 38(4): 507-528, Open Access, https://doi.org/10.1080/21599165.2022.2122050.

Popic, T. (2021). Veto Points Revisited: The Role of Party System Institutionalization in Welfare State Change. Government and Opposition, published online. https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2021.37

Asensio, M. and Popic. T (2019) 'Portuguese Healthcare Reforms in the Context of Crisis: External Pressures or Political Choice?', Social Policy & Administration 53(4), 1003-1017, DOI: 10.111/spol.12480.

Popic, T.,  Schneider, S. and Asensio, M. (2018) 'Portuguese Public Opinion towards Healthcare in the Context of Crisis' Journal of Social Policy 48(4), 741-764, DOI: 10.1017/S0047279418000818, Open Access.

Schneider, S. and Popic, T. (2018) 'Cognitive Determinants of Healthcare System Evaluations – A Comparison of Eastern and Western European Countries' Health Policy 122(3), 269-278, DOI: 10.1177/0958928717754294, Open Access. 

Popic, T. and Schneider, S. (2018) 'An East-West Comparison of Healthcare Evaluations in Europe: Do Institutions Matter?', Journal of European Social Policy 28(5), 517-534, DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2017.12.012.

Book chapters

Popic, T. and Stolarova-Demuth, G. (2021) 'Regional Outlook: South Eastern Europe'. In Health Politics in Europe: A Handbook (eds. E. M. Immergut, K. M. Anderson, C. Devitt and T. Popic) Oxford University Press.

Popic, T. and Perišić, N. (2021) 'Former Yugoslavia: Introduction'. In Health Politics in Europe: A Handbook (eds. E. M. Immergut, K. M. Anderson, C. Devitt and T. Popic), Oxford University Press.

Popic, T. (2021) 'The Czech Republic', 'Poland', 'Slovakia', 'Slovenia', 'Croatia' and 'Serbia'. In Health Politics in Europe: A Handbook (eds. E. M. Immergut, K. M. Anderson, C. Devitt and T. Popic), Oxford University Press.

Popic, T. (2020) 'Access to Social Protection by Immigrants, Emigrants and Resident Nationals in Serbia'. In Migration and social protection in Europe and beyond: A focus on non-EU sending states (Volume 3) (eds. J-M. Lafleur and C. D. Vintila), Springer Open Access.

Popic, T. (2020) 'Diaspora Policies, Consular Services and Social Protection for Serbian Citizens Abroad', In Migration and social protection in Europe and beyond: A focus on non-EU sending states (Volume 3) (eds. J-M. Lafleur and C. D. Vintila), Springer Open Access.

Popic, T. (2018 ) 'The Role of Ideas in Welfare Reforms in Central Eastern Europe'. In Gli Annali di LPF - Laboratorio di Politica Comparata e Filosofia Pubblica (eds. M. Jessoula, B. Magni, N. Riva and M. Ferrera), Centro Einaudi. ISBN 978-88-94960-00-6, Open Access.

Supervision

Tamara is interested in supervising doctoral theses in following areas:

• Comparative public and social policy
• Health policy and politics
• Institutional and policy change
• Political Communication

Public Engagement

Healthcare Satisfaction in Times of Crisis: The Role of Ideological Orientation’ (with D. Burlacu) Social Policy Blog, 2023.

2021 ‘Health System Resilience in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Gap Between Eastern and Western Europe‘ (with A. Moise). EUI STG Resilience Papers 2021.

2020 ‘Why is eastern Europe’s second wave so much worse than its first?‘ (with A. Moise), The Conversation

2020 ‘Health policy after the crisis: more of the same or a new path?’, Social Europe.

2020 ‘Serbia’s Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic’, Cambridge Core Blog.

2020 ‘European Health Systems and COVID19: Some Early Lessons‘, LSE EUROPP Blog.

2018 ‘Cognitive Determinants of Healthcare Evaluations – A Comparison of Eastern and Western European Countries’, NORFACE Welfare State Futures Newsletter. 

2018 ‘An East–West Comparison of Healthcare Evaluations in Europe: Do Institutions Matter?’, NORFACE Welfare State Futures Newsletter. 

Consultant, Best of UNICEF Research 2014, UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti