Mercè Cortina-Oriol holds a PhD in Politics from the University of the Basque Country, a Postgraduate Degree in Participatory Democracy, a PGCert in Higher Education and an Honours Degree in Political Science from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Currently, Mercè is a María Zambrano researcher at the Department of Political Science and Public Law of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, affiliated to IGOP (Institute of Government and Public Policies). Previously, she was a Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Urban Politics at the Department of Political Science (Politics, People and Place) at De Montfort University Leicester in the UK, with affiliation to the Center for Urban Research on Austerity, where she acted as the Head of Research Students.
Her research focuses on Urban Policies, Local Governance systems, Social Movements and Public Policy Analysis. In recent years, she has focused on analyzing urban governance strategies in the context of austerity and the emerging forms of innovation in public policy processes, as well as the dynamics of spatial segregation in the urban sphere.
Throughout her career, Mercè Cortina has participated in up to 13 competitive research projects and nine projects in collaboration with institutions, especially local governments in the Basque Country. Recently, Mercè Cortina has published in journals such as the Journal of Urban Affairs and Critical Policy Studies and for publishers such as Routledge and Bristol University Press, among others.