Ece Özbey is a doctoral researcher in Comparative Politics and a lecturer at the University of Cologne, where she is pursuing her PhD on populist contagion and anti-populism in the United Kingdom. Her research spans Euroscepticism, political competition, radicalization, and democracy, with a primary focus on European democracies. She holds an MSc in European Studies and a BSc in International Relations. Ece is also the Co-Managing Editor of the Review of Democracy, the journal of the Central European University’s Democracy Institute, where she previously worked as a Global Forum for Democracy and Development Fellow. She is affiliated with the METU Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence and has published on European integration and EU–Turkey relations. She has also held visiting positions at academic institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Chile and is actively involved in various international research networks, including OPUS Initiative and Team Populism.