Research assistant

Contact

Room: S06 S03 A14
Telephone: +49 (0)201 183 7638
Email: christopher.smith@uni-due.de

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Research interests

• Inequality and social policy
• Interpretive policy analysis
• Discourse and narrative analysis 

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Academic​ and professional background

10/2024 -  today
Research associate, Institute for Social Work and Social Policy, Social Policy Working Group, University of Duisburg-Essen

04/2022  -  09/2024
Research associate in “Welfare state reform ‘from Below’: Democratization of Social Policy via Social Work Representation of Weak Interests?”, (DemSoz) University of Duisburg-Essen

12/2017  -  03/2022
Doctoral studies under supervision of Prof. Dr. Karl-Rudolf Korte (UDE) and Prof. Dr. Frank Nullmeier (Uni Bremen), University of Duisburg-Essen, Dissertation title: „Der Wettstreit politischer Erzählungen über sozioökonomische Ungleichheit in Deutschland. Eine diskursanalytische Rekonstruktion parlamentarischer, medialer und administrativer Deutungsmuster, 2005-2019“ (Contending Political Narratives of Socioeconomic Inequality in Germany: A Discourse Analytical Reconstruction of Interpretations in Parliament, Media, and Administration, 2005-2019)

11/2018 - 10/2021
Doctoral scholarship holder of the Hans Böckler Foundation

01/2020  -  03/2020 
Visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG). Cologne, Germany

08/2016 - 10/2018    
Head research associate for the project “Politikmanagement im Ungleichheitsdiskurs” at the NRW School of Governance of the University of Duisburg-Essen. Funding through the Hans Böckler Foundation

02/2014 - 07/2016
Research assistant at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global Cooperation Research. Research Unit 4: Paradoxes and Perspectives of Democratization. University of Duisburg-Essen

09/2011 - 07/2013
Master of Arts International Relations: Global Governance and Social Theory, University of Bremen und Jacobs University

08/2008 - 10/2010
Bachelor of Arts Political Science / French Cultural Studies, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, School of Arts and Sciences, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA 

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Publications

Einhorn, Laura, Schein, Corinna, Smith Ochoa, Christopher 2024. Selbstorganisation und Selbstvertretung armutsbetroffener Menschen: Spannungsfelder, Chancen und Herausforderungen, in: FORUM Sozial 3, 11-1

Smith Ochoa, Christopher 2023. Politische Erzählungen sozioökonomischer Ungleichheit: Eine diskursanalytische Rekonstruktion konkurrierender Deutungsmuster. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Smith Ochoa, Christopher 2022. Zwischen Wissenschaft, Zivilgesellschaft und Politik: Der Armuts- und Reichtumsbericht der Bundesregierung, in: sozialpolitikblog, 20.10.2022, https://difis.org/blog/?blog=30

Smith Ochoa, Christopher, Yildiz, Taylan. 2022. Narrative sozioökonomischer Ungleichheit. Ein Überblick, in: Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft 32, 3-14

Smith Ochoa, Christopher, Yildiz, Taylan (Ed.). 2022. Narrative sozioökonomischer Ungleichheit. Special Issue Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft

Smith Ochoa, Christopher, Gadinger, Frank, Yildiz, Taylan. 2021. Surveillance under Dispute: Conceptualising Narrative Legitimation Politics, in: European Journal of International Security 6 (2), 210–232

Smith Ochoa, Christopher 2020. Trivializing Inequality by Narrating Facts: A Discourse Analysis of Contending Storylines in Germany, in: Critical Policy Studies 14 (3), 319-338

Smith Ochoa, Christopher / Yildiz, Taylan 2019. Der Armuts- und Reichtumsbericht im Ungleichheitsdiskurs. Hans Böckler Foundation Working Paper 121, 1-67

Smith Ochoa, Christopher / Hugendubel, Maximilian 2019. Umstrittene Faktenlage: Eine Diskursanalyse der öffentlichen Diskussion um sozioökonomische Ungleichheit in Deutschland. Hans Böckler Foundation Working Paper (Assistance by Simon Gehlhar), 131, 1-72

Gadinger, Frank, Smith Ochoa, Christopher, Yildiz, Taylan 2019: Resistance or Thuggery? Political Narratives of Urban Riots, in: Narrative Culture 6:1, Special Issue: Political Narratives, 88-111

Yildiz, Taylan, Gadinger, Frank, Smith, Christopher 2018: Narrative Legitimierung. Exekutive, repräsentative und subversive Erzählstrategien in der Überwachungskontroverse, in: Leviathan - Berliner Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft 46 (1), 135-162

Smith, Christopher 2017: Vom Verschwinden einer politisch wirkungsmächtigen Metapher. Eine kurze Genealogie der „Heuschrecke“ im gesellschaftlichen Diskurs, Essay, Online on: regierungsforschung.de

Gadinger, Frank, Kopf, Martina, Mert, Aysem, Smith, Christopher (Ed.) 2016: Political Storytelling: From Fact to Fiction, Global Dialogues 12, Duisburg: Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global Cooperation Research

Gadinger, Frank, Jarzebski, Sebastian, Smith, Christopher, Yildiz, Taylan 2015: Pragmatisch, lokal, solidarisch: Eine neue Sprache des Progressiven, in: Zeitschrift für sozialistische Politik und Wirtschaft, 211, 55-60

Rousselin, Mathieu, Smith, Christopher (Ed.) 2015: The Tunisian Constitutional Process: Main Actors and Key Issues, Global Dialogues 7, Duisburg: KHK / Centre for Global Cooperation Research

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Teaching

Winter 24/25 Armuts- und Ungleichheitsdiskurse in Deutschland - Einblicke in Politik, Medien und Administration, Vertiefungsseminar Grundlagen der Sozialpolitik (Gruppe 2) (BA)

Summer 22 and Winter 22/23, 23/24 Armuts- und Ungleichheitsdiskurse in Deutschland - Einblicke in Politik, Medien und Administration (BA)

Winter 20/21 A Comprehensive Exploration of the 2020 US Elections. NRW School of Governance. Universität Duisburg-Essen (MA)

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Conference talks (selection)

09/2024
„Balancing the Transition: European Civil Society Policy Narratives during the Social-Ecological Transformation“ for the panel Das Narrative Policy Framework in Zeiten der Vielfachkrise (co-chair together with Johanna Kuenzler) at the 29th DVPW Congress, University of Göttingen

11/2023
"Erzählte Solidarität ‚von unten‘? Eine narrativ-diskursanalytische Rekonstruktion der deutschen Armutsdiskussion in Zeiten der Polykrise, DFG project conference “Umkämpfte Solidarität", University of Magdeburg 

09/2023
"Breaking the Silence in a Crisis: Disrupting the German Poverty Discourse via Everyday Storytelling on Social Media", ECPR General Conference, Prague

06/2023
"Powerful Representation through Advocacy Storytelling: German Welfare Associations’ Policy Narrative Strategies during COVID-19", International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP6), Toronto

01/2021                                 
"All in the (German) Family: Populist Right-Wing Narrations in the German Inequality Discourse." Research colloquium at the Institute for Socio-economics at the University of Duisburg-Essen

11/2020         
"Narratives of Economic Inequality. PhD Colloquium." Max Planck for the Study of Societies and IMPRS-SPCE

09/2019                                 
"The Surveillance Plot: Transboundary Legitimation Strategies after Snowden." Paper presented at the 13th Pan-European Conference on International Relations, Sofia, Bulgaria

07/2018                                 
"The Battle over Facts: The German Discourse on Economic Inequality." Presented at The 7th Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines Conference (CADAAD), Aalborg University, Denmark

09/2015                                 
"The Rule of the ‘Euro-Project’: The New Spirit of Capitalism in the EU-Greece Crisis." Presented at the European International Studies Association Conference, Giardini di Naxos, Italy