About me

Born 1976 in Duisburg, I joined the Institute of Political Science of the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) as a researcher and lecturer in 2004. Since 2012, I am coordinating the mentoring programme for the BA Political Science.

I studied Political Science at the University of Duisburg-Essen with minors in Psychology and Law. Between 2005 and 2007, I took part in the externally funded research project "Conflict settlement through Europeanisation?" and conducted extensive fieldwork in Greece, North Macedonia and Turkey during that time. In 2007, I was Visiting Scholar at the Centre for European Studies of Nankai University (China).

My dissertation with the title "Enlargement as an all-purpose tool of the European Union? The Europeanisation of the Western Balkans since EU’s Eastern enlargement" was published by Nomos in 2010. It was awarded with the "Sparkassenpreis Duisburg 2011" for the best dissertation in Social Sciences. Recently, my co-edited volume "Democratic Citizenship in Flux. Conceptions of Citizenship in the Light of Political and Social Fragmentation" has been published by Transcript.

Since 2005, I am a member of the Southeast Europe Association (Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, SOG). The SOG is an organisation that seeks to bridge political debate with scientific dialoge and socio-cultural exchange about Southeast Europe. Since 2014, I am co-chairing the local branch of the SOG in Duisburg. From 2017 to 2020, I was the coordinator of the Jean Monnet Academic Module "Brexit Contagion, Copenhagen Dilemma and Enlargement Fatigue" funded by the European Commission through the Erasmus+ programme.

My aim is to clearly explain and critically accompany the process of European integration and the enlargement of the European Union.