Research

My research focuses on European Integration and European Politics. I am especially interested in the following topics:

• EU enlargement
• EU politics in Southeast Europe (Western Balkans)
• Europeanisation of political systems
• Peaceful settlement of conflicts
• Compliance with fundamental norms
• External relations of the EU
• Parliaments in EU multi-level governance

Jean Monnet Module

Between 2017 and 2020, I was responsible for the implementation of the Jean Monnet Module "Brexit Contagion, Copenhagen Dilemma and Enlargement Fatigue: European Union Membership Policy at the Crossroads" (EUMPC) at the Institute of Political Science. In addition to organising courses, workshops and guest lectures, the so-called Progress Report Monitor was also created. The online service, which is being continued after completion of the module, analyses the European Commission's annual progress reports and provides an overview of the current status quo of all (potential) EU accession candidates.

Downloads & data

Online Appendices for the article “Two steps forward one step back: what shapes the process of EU enlargement in South-Eastern Europe?” published by the Journal of European Integration. Volume 38, 2016 - Issue 7, DOI: 10.1080/07036337.2016.1203309.

• Table 4. Brief elaboration of calibration
• Table 5. Raw data and fuzzy-set membership scores
• Table 6. Truth table: set-theoretic consistency of causal combinations as subsets of enlargement
• Table 7. Truth table: set-theoretic consistency of causal combinations as subsets of the non-occurrence of enlargement

The practice of legitimacy

Between 2012 and 2014, I led the junior research group "The challenge of legitimacy. Society and governance under changed conditions" at the University of Duisburg-Essen together with Kristina Weissenbach. During this time, young scholars from different disciplines came together to discuss and debate matters of legimitacy. The activities were funded by the the main research area "Transformation of contemporary societies". In 2016, the collected volume "The practice of legitimacy. Perspectives from Political Science and Sociology" has been published by Springer VS.

20 years of European citizenship

Between 2013 and 2014, I led the teaching research project "20 years of European citizenship: Progress and challenges". During this time, students conducted more than 460 interviews with Duisburg citizens and organised public events in cooperation with the Europe Direct Information Centre of Duisburg. The project was funded by Stiftung Mercator.