Dr Lilija Alijeva
Contact details
About
Overview
Dr Lilija Alijeva is Presidential Fellow at The City Law School, City St George's, University of London. Her research focuses on the human rights of national, ethnic, linguistic, and religious minorities. Her current research projects examine the way international justice institutions and International Organisations protect minorities and their rights. She is part of the Minority Rights Solidarity Network steering group, which is a network of academics and practitioners working in the field of minority rights protection.
Dr Alijeva is an interdisciplinary scholar who actively combines the disciplines of Law and Political Science in her research. She graduated in International Politics at Middlesex University (London) before pursuing her LLM degree at the same institution. She completed her master’s degree in Law with Distinction and published her postgraduate dissertation with the International Journal on Minority and Group Rights in 2017. She was awarded a full scholarship by the Arts and Humanities Research Council - London Arts and Humanities Partnership in 2016 to pursue her interdisciplinary PhD studies in Law and Political Science at the School of Advanced Study, University of London.
Dr Alijeva’s academic profile is complemented by her extensive experience in practice. Building on that experience, she has become an active supporter of knowledge exchange initiatives between academics and practitioners, and interdisciplinary empirical research to understand how international human rights law is implemented in domestic contexts. Her regional specialism is the post-Soviet Baltic states, where she focuses on the realisation of minority rights, especially within the realm of public life participation.
She joined City St George's in September 2023. Currently, Dr Alijeva teaches topics of Public Law, Administrative Law, Human Rights and EU Law. In 2024, she was successful in achieving the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant for a project she is leading titled ‘Mainstreaming Inclusivity and Decolonisation in International Minority Rights Legal Norms.’
Qualifications
- PhD in Law and Political Science, School of Advanced Study, University of London, United Kingdom
- LLM, Middlesex University, United Kingdom
- BA International Politics, Middlesex University, United Kingdom
Employment
- Presidential Fellow, City, University of London, United Kingdom, September 2023 - present
- Research Fellow, University of Sussex, United Kingdom, July 2023
- Researcher and Project Manager, University of London Institute in Paris, United Kingdom, January 2022 - August 2023
- Visiting Lecturer, University of Roehampton, United Kingdom, February - November 2019
- Visiting Lecturer, School of Advanced Study, University of London, United Kingdom, January - September 2019
- Research Assistant, Human Rights Consortium, United Kingdom, January 2017 - December 2018
- Research Assistant, Middlesex University, United Kingdom, July 2015 - July 2016
Memberships of committees
- Project Group Member, Knowledge Diplomacy Network
Memberships of professional organisations
- Steering Group Member, Minority Rights Solidarity Network
Award
-
Arts and Humanities Research Council (2016). London Arts and Humanities Partnership Award
Full doctoral studies scholarship award
Languages
English, French, Latvian and Russian
Publications
Publications by category
Chapter
- Alijeva, L. and Rofe, S. (2026). Knowledge Diplomacy in theory and practice: Lessons from the University of London exploration of the concept. In Alijeva, L., Gore, T., MacDonald, S., Rofe, J.S. and Stahlberger, M. (Eds.), Knowledge Diplomacy: Regional perspectives and future trends Manchester University Press.
Conference paper and proceedings
- Alijeva, L. (2019). Minority Right to Effective Public Participation: a comparative case study of the Russian speaking minority in independent Estonia and Latvia. Association for the Study of Nationalities World Convention 2-4 May, Columbia University, New York, USA.
Internet publication
- Alijeva, L., Biro, A.-.M., Lennox, C. and Oda, M.(2018).New global database on minority issues: MinorityForum.info. Talking Humanities.
Journal articles (3)
- Alijeva, L. (2026). Securitizing minority rights: Reflections from Russian-speaking elites in Estonia and Latvia on public life participation. New Perspectives, 34(2), pp. 162-183. doi:10.1177/2336825x261436384
- Alijeva, L. (2025). Interpretation of Effective Public Participation at the ECtHR: Lessons from Recent Jurisprudence on Minority Language Education. Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe, 24(2), pp. 58-87. doi:10.53779/lial2006
- Alijeva, L. (2017). Left Behind? A Critical Study of the Russian-speaking Minority Rights to Citizenship and Language in the Post-Soviet Baltic States. Lessons from Nationalising Language Policies. International Journal on Minority and Group Rights, 24(4), pp. 484-536. doi:10.1163/15718115-02404004
Reports (5)
- Alijeva, L. (2023). University of London Knowledge Diplomacy Conference 2023. University of London Institute in Paris.
- Alijeva, L. (2022). Knowledge Diplomacy Seminar – Cities as Actors for Global Climate Change. University of London Institute in Paris.
- Alijeva, L. (2022). Knowledge Diplomacy Seminar – Cities and Culture. University of London Institute in Paris.
- Alijeva, L. (2022). Knowledge Diplomacy Seminar – Cities as Sites of Knowledge Creation and Exchange. University of London Institute in Paris.
- Alijeva, L. (2022). Knowledge Diplomacy and Crisis. University of London Institute in Paris.
Professional activities
Events/conferences (7)
- University of London Knowledge Diplomacy Conference. (Conference) Paris, France (2023). Chair, Organising Committee and Review Panel
-
The Consequences of War and Their Interdependence: Bringing Human Security Back To The Global Political Agenda. Padua, Italy (2022).
Paper: Minority Rights in Latvia: the right to minority language education and the impact of the war in Ukraine -
The post-1989 Springtime of National Minorities? (Conference) Budapest, Hungary (2019). Invited speaker.
Paper: Minority right to effective public participation: a comparative case study of the Russian-speaking minority in independent Estonia and Latvia -
ASN World Convention. (Conference) (2019).
Paper: Minority Right to Effective Public Participation: A Comparative Case Study of the Russian-Speaking Minority in Independent Estonia and Latvia? -
29th Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN). (Conference) Edinburgh, UK (2019).
Paper: The League of Nations the Question of Minorities in Interwar Estonia and Latvia: forgotten examples of multiculturalism? -
United Nations Geneva Side-event - Launch of the minorityforum.info website: NVivo and Coding Process. (Workshop) Geneva, Switzerland (2018). Invited speaker.
Description: Presented during the 11th Session of the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues side-event at the United Nations Office in Geneva. The presentation's focus was on the software aspect of Tom Latos Institute and Human Rights Consortium's research project and how data analysis benefited the creation of minorityforum.info website. - International Conference - Cities, territories and the struggles for human rights: a 2030 perspective. (Conference) Padua, Italy (2018). Session/Day Chair, Review Panel, Panel Member and Organising Committee