About

I joined the University of Derby in September 2022. Before coming to Derby, I was a lecturer in international political economy at King's College London (2019 - 2022), a teaching fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies (2017 - 2019) and a teaching associate at Queen Mary University of London (2013 - 2017).

My research is interdisciplinary and has two key strands to it. One focuses on industrial policy, upgrading alliances in the automotive industry and the challenges the industry faces in its transition towards electrification amidst rising geopolitical tensions. The other investigates the economic policy agenda of populist parties in government, with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe, and more recently, on the Reform UK party.

Teaching responsibilities

• Environmental Politics
• Economy and Environment
• Research Methods in Global Affairs & Politics
• Democracy and Authoritarianism

Research interests

• The role of the state in global production networks (GPNs)
• Industrial policy and the green transition
• Economic and social policy of populist parties

Membership of professional bodies

• Fellow of Advance HE
• Political Studies Association
• Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics
• British International Studies Association

Qualifications

• PhD Politics (Queen Mary University of London)
• LLM International Development Law and Human Rights (University of Warwick)
• BA International Relations (University of Ljubljana)

Recent conferences

• Votes or Donor Links? Explaining the economic policy agenda of Reform UK, City St George's, University of London, 6 October 2025.
• The Electrification Turn in ECE Automotive Industry: Examining the Extent of Dependency on China, “Green Expectations: Decarbonising ECE Manufacturing and the Rise of China as a Green Superpower” panel, Capitalist Transformations in Eastern and Central Europe online conference, 20 May 2025.
• Between a rock and a hard place: the geoeconomic implications of the EV trade war between China and the West on the UK automotive industry, “The New Geographies of Automotive Production” panel, Regional Studies Association Winter Conference 2024, London, 8 November 2024.
• Beyond dependent development? Emergence of an upgrading alliance behind the case of InoBat in Slovakia, Political Studies Association 74th Annual Conference, Glasgow, 25–27 March 2024
• Just Transition and Alternative Production in Global Value Chains: Case of Central and Eastern Europe, Automotive industry - Just transition and development of alternatives in the international value chains, Rosa Luxembourg Stiftung, Brussels, 27–28 June 2022
• Successful and unsuccessful politicisation of central banking in emerging market economies during the COVID-19 crisis: Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic, co-authored with Marko Lovec, Political Studies Association 72^nd Annual Conference, York, 11–13 April 2022
• Reconceptualising Dependent Market Economies in East Central Europe Ten Years After the Financial Crisis, SASE 2020 – Virtual Conference, 18–21 July 2020
• Analysing the Economic Dimension of Populist Rule in Post-Crisis Europe: Hungary and Poland, Political Studies Association 69th Annual Conference, Nottingham, 15–17 April 2019
• From Protesting to Supporting a Minority Government: Mapping the Trajectory of the Slovenian Left Party, lecture given as part of the UCL School of Slavic and East European Studies Seminar Series, 23 October 2018

Recent publications

• Toplišek, Alen. 2024 Beyond Dependent Development? The Unlikely Emergence of an Upgrading Alliance in the Case of InoBat in Slovakia. Studies in Comparative International Development 59 (4): 767–793.
• Toplišek, Alen. 2022. Path dependency and electoral priorities: explaining COVID-19 social support programmes in East-Central Europe, co-authored with Edgars Eihmanis, Nils Oellerich and Jasper Paul Simons. East European Politics 38 (4): 641–661. 
• Toplišek, Alen. 2022. Riding the Covid Waves: Authoritarian Socio-Economic Responses of East-Central Europe’s Anti-Liberal Governments, co-authored with Dorothee Bohle, Gergő Medve-Bálint and Vera Šćepanović. East European Politics 38 (4): 662–686. 
• Toplišek, Alen, co-edited with Bohle, Dorothee and Eihmanis, Edgars.  2022. The Political Economy of COVID-19 Responses in Central and Eastern Europe. Florence: European University Institute Robert Schuman Centre. [e-book]. 230 pages
• Toplišek, Alen. 2021. Slovenia – Economy. In Central and South-Eastern Europe 2022, ed. Europa Publications, 22nd edition. Routledge
• Toplišek, Alen. 2020. The Political Economy of Populist Rule in Post-Crisis Europe: Hungary and Poland. New Political Economy 25 (3): 388–403. 
• Toplišek, Alen. 2019. Liberal Democracy in Crisis: Rethinking Resistance under Neoliberal Governmentality. Palgrave Macmillan, book series ‘The Theories, Concepts and Practices of Democracy’
• Toplišek, Alen. 2019. Between populism and socialism: Slovenia’s Left party. In The Populist Radical Left in Europe, eds. Giorgos Katsambekis and Alexandros Kioupkiolis, 73–92. London: Routledge
• Toplišek, Alen. 2018. Rethinking (De)Politicisation in Liberalism: Between Ephemerality and Institutionalisation of Power. In Comparing Strategies of (De)Politicisation in Europe: Governance, Resistance and Anti-Politics, eds. Jim Buller, Pinar E. Domez, Adam Standring and Matthew Wood, 25–51. Palgrave Macmillan
• Toplišek, Alen. 2017. From protest to party: horizontality and verticality on the Slovenian Left, co-authored with Lasse Thomassen. Europe-Asia Studies 69 (9): 1383–400.