PhD Student
Leandra Toska
Leandra Toska is a PhD Student in Law at DCU’s School of Law and Government, where she has been awarded a four-year Postgraduate Research Scholarship by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Her doctoral research examines how the European Court of Human Rights interprets the concept of human dignity in its pushback jurisprudence, with particular focus on the role that emotions play as an interpretive resource in this process.
She holds a LLB in Legal Studies and an LLM in International Law from the South East European University, as well as an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex, where she was a Chevening Scholar in 2024-2025, supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Prior to joining DCU, she worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Essex, contributing to research on the use of electronic monitoring and its compatibility with international human rights standards, as well as research on reparations for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. She has also worked and volunteered across the non-governmental, civil society, and humanitarian sectors.
Her broader academic interests include international and European human rights law, contemporary migration and border governance, the prohibition of torture and other forms of ill-treatment, human dignity, and the relationship between law and emotions. Her previous research focused on the extent to which European pushbacks violate the protection afforded by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.