Andras Szalai is a research fellow at the Democracy Institute (DI). In parallel, he is also associate professor at the Department of International Relations and European Studies of Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE). 

His current research at the DI deals with rightwing populism’s narrative construction of security threats, the symbolic use of borders in mitigating ontological insecurities, and the securitization of migration as a societal control mechanism. His general research interests include securitization theory, constructivist theories of European foreign policy, and epistemic power in security expertise. Szalai’s work has appeared in outlets such as International Relations, Millennium, and the European Review of International Studies.