Dr Alexandra Hennessy

Biography

Dr Hennessy's areas of specialisation include European Union Politics, EU trade and foreign policies, financial crises, and EU-Indonesia relations. She is co-Director of the Jean Monnet European Centre of Excellence (with Prof Han Dorussen) and member of the EU-Asia Security and Trade (EAST) research group. Her research contributes insights into the complex dynamics of decision-making, policy implementation, and accountability within the European Union. She studies how EU member states and institutions respond to challenges like the euro crisis, Russia’s war against Ukraine, and the clean energy transition. Her book on the European single pension market shows how the EU, in interaction with member states, helped make workplace pensions portable. Her articles have appeared in journals such as Socio-Economic Review, International Interactions, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of Public Policy, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, and Journal of European Integration, among others. Her book, titled The Europeanization of Workplace Pensions, was published by Cambridge University Press (2014). Together with Dr Ryan Bakker, she is the co-recipient of the Supervisor of the Year award for the Faculty of Social Sciences (2024). She received the EUSA Best Dissertation Award (2009) and honourable mention for the Best Paper presented at the EUSA conference. Dr Hennessy always welcomes PhD students whose research falls in the broad fields of European Union Politics and Comparative Political Economy.

Qualifications

• B.A./ M.A. (Diplom) in Social Sciences, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany

• Ph.D. in Political Science, Boston University, Massachusetts

Appointments

University of Essex

• Co-convenor of speaker series, Government, University of Essex (17/9/2017 - 1/7/2021)

• Director of Employability, Government, University of Essex (1/9/2021 - 1/9/2023)

• Deputy Director, Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis, Government, University of Essex (1/9/2024 - present)