About me

I am a political scientist in the Department of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Witten/Herdecke University and I am affiliated with the Identity & Conflict Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, I held positions at the University of Essex and University of Exeter as well as fellowhships at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House and the University of Konstanz’ The Politics of Inequality Cluster.

My research focuses on the causes of elite cooperation and violent conflict. I investigate, for example, why political elites form multi-ethnic coalitions, how economic inequality between ethnic groups develops over time, and what effects international intervention has on the stability of ethnic power sharing.

I am the principal investigator of the ERC Starting Grant “Democracy, Anger, and Elite Responses” (DANGER). My team and I investigate how government coalitions in interwar Europe dealt with violent threats to democratic survival. We want to learn about successful strategies to counter violent challenges and apply these lessons to contemporary European democracies.