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Costin Ciobanu

Costin Ciobanu

Romania

  • Program Year
  • 2015-17
  • Country of Current Residence
  • Canada
  • City/Town of Current Residence
  • Montreal
  • Current Position
  • Sauvé Fellow
  • Organization
  • Jeanne Sauvé Foundation
  • Profession(s)

  • Consultant, Political Advisor, PhD Candidate

  • Sector(s)
  • Communications (including media), Government, International Affairs, International relations, Politics / Policy
  • Language(s)
  • English, French, Romanian
  • Mentor
  • Elisabeth Gidengil, Professor, Department of Political Science, McGill University; Maurice Charland, Department of Communication Studies, Concordia University
  • Interest(s) / Expertise
  • communications, democracy, elections, political science, politics
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Impact Statement

Costin strongly believes in nurturing and promoting public leaders in order to rejuvenate representative democracy and create a more equal and prosperous society. He is passionate about politics, philosophy, literature and meeting new, fascinating people.

Biography

Costin is currently pursuing a PhD in Political Science at McGill University. Supervised by his Sauvé academic mentor, Professor Elisabeth Gidengil, Costin will specialize in Comparative Politics (European Union; Central and Eastern Europe) and International Relations, focusing specifically on election forecasting models.

Costin is a firm supporter of open politics. In the last seven years, he has been involved in local, parliamentary, Euro-parliamentary and presidential elections in Romania. He has also served as Communications and Policy Advisor to the President of the Romanian Senate and to the President of the Romanian Social-Democratic Party. His expertise in the public sector has been enhanced by working with the NGO “Institutul pentru Politici Publice” (The Institute for Public Policy) and with the Chancellery of the Romanian Prime Minister. He regularly writes political analyses on the Smart Politics platform. He believes that changing politics and government structures are fundamental to strengthening Romanian democracy.

Costin holds a Professional Master’s in Political and Social Communication from the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, a B.A in Philosophy from the University of Bucharest, and a B.A. in Communication and PR from the National School for Political and Administrative Studies.

As a Fellow

In alignment with their program’s theme of Public Leadership for Culturally Diverse Societies, the 2016-17 Sauvé Fellows decided to collectively explore the complexities of refugee integration in Canada. To advance their learnings, they led a critical reading group, conducted site visits, and met with a wide range of relevant stakeholders, including refugees and parliamentarians. Their team project’s goal was to develop and pilot an approach to refugee integration in a holistic and practical way that delivered both impact and thought leadership while espousing core values of agency, inclusivity, fairness and cultural sensitivity.

In tackling the issue of refugee integration and implementing their team project, the Fellows wrote a policy brief (which they presented to several ministers while in Ottawa) and an op-ed, produced a short film on refugee experiences in Montreal as well as organized a series of public events exploring refugee integration in Canada.

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