Project PI

Cristina Blanco Sío-López

Dr. Cristina Blanco Sío-López is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Senior Global Fellow and Principal Investigator (PI) of the EU Horizon 2020 research project ‘Navigating Schengen: Historical Challenges and Potentialities of the EU’s Free Movement of Persons, 1985-2015’ (NAVSCHEN) - European Commission Grant Agreement (GA) No: 841201 - at the European Studies Center (ESC) - EU Jean Monnet European Centre of Excellence (JMEUCE) of the University of Pittsburgh and at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

From 2022 she is ‘María Zambrano’ Senior Distinguished Researcher at the University of La Coruña (UDC), Spain; PI of the ‘FUNDEU’ project, funded by the NextGenerationEU framework; and PI of the ‘Research Consolidation’ tenure-granting project 'FREEMOVEU', funded by the Spanish National Research Agency (AEI).

She previously was Assistant Professor in European Culture and Politics at the University of Groningen and ‘Santander’ Senior Fellow in Iberian and European Studies at the European Studies Centre (ESC) – St. Antony’s College of the University of Oxford, where she remains a Senior Member.

Dr. Cristina Blanco Sío-López is Member of the Executive Committee of the Global Young Academy (GYA), where she holds the ‘Strategic Partnerships’ and the ‘Visibility and Impact’ Portfolios and directs the ‘Global Passport for Scholars’ (GPS) Initiative. She is also Co-Leader of the GYA project ‘The COVID-19 Pandemic and Art’ and part of the research team awarded with the ‘Sasha Kagansky’ Interdisciplinary Grant 2021/22  for the GYA project ‘The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Personal Experiences of Global Young Researchers’.

Furthermore, Dr. Blanco Sío-López is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (RHS), a Fellow of the Young Academy of Europe (YAE) and a Full-Member of the Spanish Young Academy / Academia Joven de España (AJdE), where she represents the field of History. The AJdE is supported by the by the Centre of Human and Social Sciences / Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

She is also currently a UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab (IPL) Expert and Moderator of the UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab (IPL) Team 'Historical Legacies of Free Movement and Migration Policy-Making'. She was Chair of the North America Chapter of the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) in 2020-2021, which received the ‘Best Non-European Chapter Award 2020’ by the MCAA.

During the outgoing phase of the project she directs (2019-2021), Dr. Blanco Sío-López was a MSCA ‘Falling Walls Lab’ selected participant and finalist on the topic of 'Breaking the Wall of Human Mobility Rights' at the 'EU German Presidency Conference' 2020. She was also a selected participant and speaker at the World Science Forum (WSF) 2019 in representation of the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA), held at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest.

In 2021 she was the Co-Convenor and Coordinator of the International Conference ‘Mobility and Human Rights in European Integration: Perspectives from the Past’, held at the European Studies Center (ESC) – Jean Monnet EU Center of Excellence of the (JMEUCE) of the University of Pittsburgh and Convenor and Chair of the International Workshop ‘The Transatlantic Relation from 2021: Where do we go from here?’, organised as Chair of the North America Chapter of the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA-NA).

In 2020 she was Invited Lecturer at the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence (JMCE) of the University of Florida on the topic of ‘The Historical Legacies of the EU’s Free Movement of Persons: Our human mobility rights in a post(?) COVID-19 context?’, in collaboration with the European Studies Center (ESC) - Jean Monnet EU Center of Excellence (JMEUCE) of the University of Pittsburgh, the EU Erasmus + Program and the ‘Jean Monnet in the USA’ Program. In 2021 she gave the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Senior Global Fellow Lecture 2021 at the European Studies Center (ESC) - Jean Monnet EU Center of Excellence (JMEUCE) of the University of Pittsburgh and was Invited Lecturer at the Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET) of the University of Vienna.

She received the 2018-2019 Council for European Studies (CES) – IMSISS Senior Visiting Fellowship Award at the University of Glasgow to work on Human Mobility Rights and European Integration. In 2019 she was 'Oxford Centre for Economic and Social History' Invited Lecturer on ‘The Solidarity Principle and the EU’s Free Movement of Persons’ at St. Hilda's College, University of Oxford and Law, Justice and Society’ Invited Lecturer at Wolfson College, Oxford.

Dr. Blanco Sío-López is also Leading Associate Researcher R4 at the Institute of Contemporary History (IHC) — New University of Lisbon and was a Senior Lecturer on ‘Qualitative Approaches to Human Mobility and European Integration’ for the EU Science Hub Evidence-informed policymaking - European Commission - Joint Research Centre (JRC) at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. In 2017 she was ‘Jean Monnet EUCE - ULS’ Research Scholar in Residence at the ESC - University of Pittsburgh and Invited Expert at Shanghai University - 上海大学. 

She previously worked as Principal Investigator (PI), Lecturer and Leading Researcher in European Studies at the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe - University of Luxembourg for six years. She also worked at the Robert Schuman for Advanced Studies (RSCAS) in Florence for three years, at the DG Enlargement of the European Commission and at the European Parliament in Brussels and at the US Congress in Washington, D. C.

Dr. Blanco Sío-López was also Invited Expert in European Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science - LSE (2013 and 2016); the Yale Law School (2016); All Souls College, University of Oxford (2016 and 2019) and at the Faculty of Law and the Sydney Sussex and Darwin Colleges (POLIS) of the University of Cambridge (2014, 2016 and 2017). She was Section Chair for the European International Studies Association (EISA), Salzburg Global Seminar Lecturer and EUI Global Governance Program Network Member.

She obtained her PhD in History and Civilization (European Integration History) at the European University Institute of Florence (EUI), for which she received the FAEY ‘Best PhD Thesis European Research and Mobility Award’ 2008.

She coordinated and participated in numerous international research projects, conferences and peer-reviewed publications in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Her research and publications focus on European Integration History - with an accent on enlargement policy temporalities and the Schengen area fundamental rights - Global Governance, Comparative Regional Integration and Digital Humanities.