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 have held positions at the University of Essex and University of Exeter.

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 was recently awarded an ERC Starting Grant for the project Democracy, Anger, and Elite Responses (DANGER). In the next five years, I will investigate if and how political elites’ coalition choices can fend off threats to European democracies between 1919 and 1939, and how applicable these lessons are for today.