• since 10/2017 Research Associate and Lecturer at the Chair of International Relations, Institute of Social Sciences, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg
• 09/2018 German-Kazakh University Almaty, Kasachstan, Lecturer (Flying Faculty Programme DAAD)
• 07/17 viva to Dr. phil. (PhD equivalent) in Political Science, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg
  (Thesis: »Demokratie, Liberalismus und Gewalt eine begriffsorientierte Kritik der Demokratiespezifischen Gewaltforschung«)
• 2010-2013 granted Doctoral Fellow, Walther-Rathenau-Kolleg/Moses Mendelssohn Centre Potsdam
• 2009-2010 Teaching Fellow, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg
• 2009 Visiting Scholar, International Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO);
       Research grant: Norwegian Research Council/E.ON Ruhrgas Scholarship Programme for Political Science
• 2007/08/09 Training Scholarships »The Diversity of Human Rights«, Inter-University-Centre Dubrovnik,  Kroatien/Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, Institute of Philosophy
• 2008 Master of Arts, Peace and Conflict Studies, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg
• 2007 Research Assistant (Tutor), Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Institute of Philosophy
• 2004 Magistra Artium (Philosophy, German Studies), Leipzig University

Academic Activities and Networks

European International Studies Association (EISA), member, contributing to debates on critique, the Anthropocene, and the role of hope in international political theory.

Recent roles include:

• Section Chair, Working with the Negative, EISA Pan-European Conference, Bologna (2025)
• Workshop Co-Convenor, EWIS (2022–2024), including:
• Crisis and Hope in International Relations
• Care, Compost, Capitalism, and Cats: Dissident Anthropocenes / Dissident Scholarship
• Working with the Negative
• Co-organiser of international workshops on critique, affirmation, and Anthropocene politics (Exploratory Symposia, Rapallo, 2019 & 2022)

Other Activities:

• Academic Advisor, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Sachsen e.V.
• Chairwoman, Giro e.V. Leipzig, Arts, Education and Politics
• Erasmus+ Exchange Programme Coordinator with American University of Central Asia, Bishkek
• Since 2008: diverse activities in transnational political education, focus region: Russian Federation

• Critical international political theory
• Liberal violence and democratic critique
• International Relations in the Anthropocene
• Critique, negativity, and hope
• Intervention, governance, and political imaginaries

Teaching
Teaching spans international political theory, global governance, and the politics of the Anthropocene, with a focus on critique, intervention, and planetary change.
Courses include:

• Securing peace after war: international statebuilding and peace intervention
• Transitional Justice
• Peace and Conflict Beyond the Human
• The End of International Relations?
• Power, Domination, and the Appropriation of Nature
• Norms in International Relations
• Introduction to Critical Theory

Please check the 'Courses' tab to see what courses are available for this semester

Monographs and Editorships

• Working with the Negative: Critique at the End of the World , edited volume, with David Chandler and Julian Pugh, Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming, peer-reviewed
• Hope in the Anthropocene: Agency, Governance and Negation , edited volume, with Pol Bargués and David Chandler, Edinburgh University Press, 2024, peer-reviewed
• The Violence of Democracy: A Concept-Oriented Critique of Democracy-Specific Violence Research , Nomos, 2019, monograph, peer-reviewed
• Isolation and Exclusion as a Post-Soviet Experience: Mourning Work. Disruption. Lines of Escape , edited volume, with Johannes Spohr and Luca Bublik, edition assemblage, Münster, 2016

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

• “Dark hope in the Anthropocene,” with Pol Bargués and David Chandler, in  Hope in the Anthropocene: Agency, Governance and Negation , edited by Valerie Waldow, Pol Bargués and David Chandler, Edinburgh University Press, 2024, 1–18
• “Hope and the end of critique? – Crisis and Affirmation in the Anthropocene,” in  Hope in the Anthropocene: Agency, Governance and Negation , edited by Valerie Waldow, Pol Bargués and David Chandler, Edinburgh University Press, 2024, 185-200, peer-reviewed
• “Hope after 'the end of the world': Rethinking critique in the Anthropocene,” with Pol Bargués, David Chandler and Sebastian Schindler,  Contemporary Political Theory , 2023, peer-reviewed
• “The spirits we cite, or: How even democratic war theory reproduces what it opposes,” in Benjamin Martill and Sebastian Schindler (eds.),  Theory as Ideology , Routledge Abingdon, 2020, peer-reviewed

Other Writing

• “Hope,” in Jahn B and Schindler S (eds.),  Elgar Encyclopedia of International Relations , Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025, 167–168
• “Is there hope at the end of the world?,” blog entry,  World Relations for 2050 (#WR2050) , June 2022
• “Things that are difficult for a democratic people: liberal democracy and war as a means of politics,”  Dialog , 2(50), 2011
• Book review: Newman, Edward / Paris, Roland / Richmond, Oliver P. (eds.),  New Perspectives on Liberal Peacebuilding , New York: United Nations University Press, 2009; reviewed in Journal of Peace Research , 47(4), 2010

Conference Papers (recent)

• “Hope in the Anthropocene,” Examining Hopeful Futures in/after the Anthropocene, International Research Seminar organized by the POWERS network, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, 27 March 2025
• “Negativity as Hope: A Lens for Critique in the Anthropocene?,” Hopeful Attachments on a Ruined Planet, Humanities Center for Advanced Studies “Futures of Sustainability,” University of Hamburg, October 9–11, 2024
• “Negativity as Hope: Addressing Affirmation in Times of Crisis,” European Workshops in International Studies, EWIS 2024, Kadir Has University, Istanbul, July 3–6, 2024
• "Hope at the End of Critique? Crisis and Affirmation in the Anthropocene," European Workshops in International Studies, Amsterdam, July 12-14, 2023
• “Hope, Affirmation and Critique in the Anthropocene,” EISA Pan European Conference, Potsdam, September 5-9, 2023
• “Critical Theory and Critical Beach Studies in the Anthropocene,” International Workshop Critical Beach Studies: being, knowing and governing on the beach, Center for Global Cooperation Research, Duisburg, 7 June 2023

Older Conference Papers and Presentations (selected)

• “Reply to: Heterarchy – Envisioning World Politics Between Hierarchy and Anarchy”, Roundtable Contribution, EISA Pan European Conference, Potsdam, September 5-9, 2023
• "Hope at the End of Critique? Crisis, Critique and Affirmation in the Anthropocene," 9th European Workshops in International Studies, Thessaloniki, July 6-9, 2022
• “Hope and Critique in the Anthropocene,” Workshop: Hope in the Anthropocene, Charles University, Prague, November 28, 2018
• “Using violence against violence. Human rights protection and democracy in the context of global governance,” Lecture Series, Department of Human Rights, OvGU-Magdeburg, 20 November 2018
• "For all Futility. Hope, Resistance and Critique," Millennium Conference on International Relations, London, 27-28 October 2018
• "Beyond the Map. The End of Critique and the Quest for New Political Imaginaries," Pan-European Conference on International Relations (EISA), Prague, September 12-15, 2018
• "Doing as If. Hope and Critique in IR," BISA Workshop Performing Utopia, Queen Mary University of London, 25 May 2018
• “Reading democratic war study through conceptual politics – a claim for politicization as research strategy,” 11th Pan-European Conference on International Relations (EISA), Barcelona, ​​13–15 September 2017
• “The spirits we cite, or: How even democratic war theory reproduces what it opposes,” EWIS Workshop “Theory as Ideology,” Cardiff, 7–10 June 2017
• “Tanya don't cry! Subversive artistic practice and governmental repression in contemporary Russia,” CEEISA-ISA Joint International Conference, Ljubljana, 23–25 June 2016
• “Contested politicization, or: How even democratic war theory reproduces what it opposes,” CEEISA-ISA Joint International Conference, Ljubljana, 23–25 June 2016
• "...what does that have to do with the price of tea in China? A performative-reflective dialogue on the political economy of the IR classroom," with Philipp Rödel, 9th Pan-European Conference on International Relations (EISA), Giardini Naxos, September 23-26, 2015
• “On the (Un)controversiality of Liberal Democracy in Democracy-Specific Violence Research,” Greifswald University, Institute for Political Science and Communication, 29 June 2011
• “Liberal-democratic warfare – theoretical and normative considerations,” Final Workshop of the Research Group “Liberal Peace and the Ethics of Peacebuilding,” Oslo, November 16-17, 2009
• “Democracies at War – The Escalation of Violence in the Struggle for Universal Values?”, Conference “The Diversity of Human Rights. Human Dignity and Violence”, Inter University Centre, Dubrovnik, 8–12 September 2009