About me

I am a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences at Humboldt University Berlin. I have completed my PhD in the Department of Political Science at University College London (UCL). During my PhD, I was a visiting researcher at the University of Vienna and at Yale University.

My research investigates some of the most pressing challenges that democracies in Europe are confronted with today: the rise of populist challenger parties, the increasing relevance of political identities, and the political transformations related to climate change. Methodologically, I am interested in computational text analysis and experimental political science.

Before starting my PhD, I have completed the MSc in Democracy and Comparative Politics at UCL. I also hold a BA in Politics, Administration and Organisation from University of Potsdam. Next to my studies, I have been working as a freelance journalist for several media outlets covering German, British and International Politics.

Publications

Does Mainstream Populism Work? Populist Rhetoric and the Electoral Fortunes of Mainstream Parties
Accepted conditional on Replication Political Science Research & Methods | Paper

The Challenger Advantage – How Challenger Parties disrupt Mainstream Party Dominance in the European Parliament
Journal of European Public Policy | Paper | Podcast | Coverage by Deutschlandfunk

Debunking the Backlash - Uncovering European Voters‘ Climate Preferences (with Tarik Abou-Chadi, Jannik Jansen and Nils Redeker)
Jacque Delors Centre Policy Paper | Paper & Data | Coverage by the Guardian, der Spiegel, Euractiv and others

Projects

Winning Votes and Changing Minds: Do Populist Arguments Affect Candidate Evaluations and Issue Preferences? (with Benjamin Lauderdale and Christopher Wratil)
Working Paper | Revise & Resubmit

United in Success, Fragmented in Failure The Moderating Effect of Government Satisfaction on Affective Polarization between Coalition Partners (with Jochem Vanagt)
Revise & Resubmit

Mainstream Party Rhetoric and Affective Polarization towards Radical Right Parties (with Ivo Bantel)
Under Review

What Works Against Populist Rhetoric? The Effects of Pluralist and Democratic Elitist Counter-Arguments on Democratic Attitudes and Vote Choice (with Julia Leschke)
Under Review

The Politics behind the Policies. Party Competition over Climate Politics and Public Preferences on Green Policies (with Tarik Abou-Chadi)
Work in Progress

Attitudes towards Inclusionary Identity Politics: Abstract Support, Concrete Skepticism (with Peter Dinesen, Kim Sønderskov and Matthias Avina)
Work in Progress

What Advances Minority Causes in Identity Politics? Experimental Evidence on Antagonistic and Universalistic Arguments (with Peter Dinesen and Kim Sønderskov)
Work in Progress

Teaching

I have experience in teaching classes in Political Science and Data Science. I was a teaching assistant for courses covering Quantitative Text Analysis and Machine Learning at the LSE’s Department of Methodology, as well as for Measurement in Data Science, Causal Inference, and an introductory course on Comparative Politics at UCL. In addition, I regularly teach and organise workshops for civic education programmes in Germany and Eastern Europe.