• Senior lecturer at the Institute of Political Science, University of Tübingen, since 03/2019
• Visiting Professor, Otto-Suhr-Institut, FU Berlin, 10/23-09/24
• Adjunct Professor (Privatdozentin), Helmut-Schmidt-University Hamburg, since 04/2018
• Lecturer, Chair of International Relations, TU Braunschweig / Germany, 08/2018-03/2018
• Habilitation (Dr. habil.): “The politics of security - narratives and images in international politics” (cumulative), 12/2017
• Acting Chair in Global and Transnational Governance (Vertretungsprofessorin), University Münster / Germany, 04/2017-09/2017
• Lecturer, Institute of International Politics, Helmut Schmidt University / Germany, 04/2016-07/2018
• Acting Chair in International Relations and Politics in the World Society (Vertretungsprofessorin), INIIS, University Bremen / Germany, 10/2015 - 03/2016
• Research Fellow and Lecturer, Institute for Political Science, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg / Germany, 08/2012 - 09/2015
• Ph.D. (Dr. phil.): “Foreign Policy as Culture - A Reconstruction of European Security and Defence Policies” (in German), 01/2014
• Research Fellow, Goethe University Frankfurt a.M. / Germany; Project The Transformation of Security Culture, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education in Germany; supervised by Professor Christopher Daase; 07/2010-07/2012
• Research Fellow and Teaching Associate, Institute for Political Sciences, Goethe-University Frankfurt a.M. / Germany; 01/2006-02/2011
• Research Fellow, Goethe-University Frankfurt a.M. / Germany, Cluster of Excellence The Formation of Normative Orders; Project Secur(itiz)ing the West: The Transformation of Transatlantic Order; supervised by Professor Gunther Hellmann; 04/2008-04/2010
• Scholar in Residence, American University Washington D.C.; invited by Professor Patrick T Jackson; 10/2008-03/2009
• Coordinator for e-learning activities and e-teaching scenarios, Department of Social Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt a.M. / Germany; 09/2006-04/2007
• Research and Teaching Assistant at the Department of Social Sciences, Goethe-University Frankfurt a.M. /Germany; 10/2002-12/2005
• Assistant, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, regional office Mainz / Germany; 04/2001-04/2005
• Magistra Artium (Master) in Political Science (major), Sociology (minor) and Art History (minor), Goethe University Frankfurt, 05/2004

• Critical Security Studies
• Discourse and practice theories
• Visual turn in IR
• Political violence and emotions
• Gender and bodies
• Interpretive methodologies
• Foreign policy and diplomatic practices of international organizations

I’m happy to supervise BA and MA thesis with a focus on peace and conflict studies as well as global politics.

For a PhD-thesis, I recommend that candidates get in touch personally.

12/2019          Best Teaching Award Baden-Württemberg, together with Julia Gurol, Ingo Henneberg, Alexander Kobusch, Thomas Nielebock und Nathalie Pawlowski

11/2018          Fritz Thyssen Foundation, workshop “Doing interpretation”, principal investigator with Sybille Münch / Marlon Barbehön

2016-2018      DFG Research network on “Understanding visuality in global politics: a multidisciplinary conversation on theories, methodologies and research practices”, principal investigator with Axel Heck

08/2014          Fritz Thyssen Foundation, workshop “Visual Culture and the Legitimacy of Military Interventions”, principal investigator with Anna Geis

Go to ALMA for my seminar this term

• Introduction to International Relations Theories
• Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies
• Visual Global Politics
• Ethics in Global Politics
• Conflict analysis
• Mediation and conflict transformation
• Qualitative methods
• Peacekeeping and the Responsibility to Protect
• Europe and the World

* Peer review

Monographs

(2016) Außenpolitik als Kultur: Diskurse und Praktiken Europäischer Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik, Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag. (Dissertation)

(2004) Europa erträumen: Der Einfluss deutscher Europapolitik im Konvent zur Zukunft Europas. Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, elektronische Ressource abrufbar unter http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3024; mit Interviews. (Magisterarbeit)

Edited Volumes and Special Issues

*(2020) Visualität & Weltpolitik: Praktiken des Zeigens und Sehens in den Internationalen Beziehungen. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag; together with Axel Heck.

*(2019) Was gibt es da zu deuten? Politikforschung als interpretative Praxis. Sonderband 2/2019 der Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft; together with Sybille Münch and Marlon Barbehön.

*(2017) Visualizing violence: aesthetics and ethics in international politics. Global Discourse 7:2-3 (special issue); together with Anna Geis.

*(2016) Transformations of Security Studies: Dialogues, Diversity and Discipline; together with Julian Junk and Christopher Daase (Routledge book series PRIO New Security Studies).

Journal Articles

*(i.E.) The Look of NATO: Visual Representations of Military Force and Alliance Identity in 1984 and 2021. European Journal of International Security (accepted).

(i.V.) Visual Violence: figurations of violence and its visual representation in global politics. (EJIR revise & resubmit).

*(2023) EU’s approach to regulating social media platforms: A discourse analysis of the Digital Services Act. Politics and Governance, 11: 3, https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v11i3.6735 (special issue on “Global Publics”).

(2022) Sensible politics: Visualizing International Relations, by William A. Callahan. International Affairs, 98:4, 1452–1454.

*(2019) Representing torture in Zero Dark Thirty (2012): Popular culture as a site of norm contestation. Media, War & Conflict 14:2, 174-190.

(2019) Thinking and Writing “Visual Global Politics” –  (Review Exchange on ‘Visual Global Politics’, with Roland Bleiker). International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society 32:3, 105-114 (by invitation).

*(2019) The afterlife of Osama bin Laden: Performative pictures in the ‘war on terror’. Critical Studies on Terrorism 12:1, 1-18.

(2017) Introduction - Visualizing violence: aesthetics and ethics in international politics. Global Discourse 7:2-3, 193-200; together with Anna Geis.

*(2017) »The facts cannot be denied« Legitimacy, war and the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Global Discourse 7:2-3, 285-303; together with Anna Geis.

(2017) »Revolution must come« Von der Problembeschreibung zur politischen Aktion. Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft 27:1, 95-97 (Forum zur Zukunft der Politikwissenschaft; by invitation).

*(2015) »And … Cut!« Theoretische und methodische Überlegungen zur Analyse von Filmen in Lehre und Forschung. Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen 22:2, 129-152; together with Axel Heck.

*(2014) The West: A Securitizing Community? Journal of International Relations and Development 17:3, 367-396; together with Gunther Hellmann, Benjamin Herborth and Christian Weber.

*(2013) Securitizing Images: The Female Body and the War in Afghanistan. European Journal of International Relations 19:4, 891-913; together with Axel Heck (EJIR editor's choice collection on gender).

*(2012) Into the »Heart of Darkness«: EU’s Civilizing Mission in the DR Congo. Journal of International Relations and Development 15:3, 321-344.

*(2011) Bildpolitik und Sicherheitskultur: Das TIME-Cover »Aisha«. Sicherheit + Frieden, 2, 78-83.

Book Chapters

*(2025) Visual discourses of identity formation: NATO’s image on social media. In: Sterling, James und Mark Webber (Hrsg.): The Oxford Handbook of NATO. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

*(2025) “Body”. In: Jahn, Beate und Sebastian Schindler (Hrsg.): Elgar Encyclopedia of International Relations. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 32-33. 

*(2024) Seeing Deterrence and Defense: Visual Representations of Military Force Comparison between NATO and the Warsaw Pact in the 1980s. In: Albert, Matthias, Thomas Müller und Kerrin Langer (Hrsg.): Comparisons in Global Security Politics. Bristol University Press, 60-83.

(2023) Bilder, die verletzen: Die Regulierung von Gewalt in Sozialen Medien zwischen Politisierung, Responsibilisierung und Verrechtlichung. In: Fröhlich, Manuel (ed.): Sprache und Politik. Baden Baden: Nomos.

*(2022) Social media – shared responsibility 3.0? In: Hansen-Magnusson, Hannes & Antje Vetterlein (eds.): Routledge Handbook on Responsibility. London and New York: Routledge, 331-344.

*(2021) »We are going to War«: Narratives of Self-Defence and Responsibility in Afghanistan War Documentaries. In: Simon, Hendrik & Lothar Brock (eds.): The Justification of War and International Order: From Past to Present; Oxford: Oxford University Press; together with Axel Heck. 327-338.

(2020) #humanitywashedashore - Visualität und Emotionen in der internationale Politik, In: Koschut, Simon (ed.): Emotionen in den Internationalen Beziehungen. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 59-80.

*(2020) Un-/Sichtbare Folter: Streit um Normen »made in Hollywood«, in: Schlag, Gabi & Axel Heck (eds.): Visualität und Weltpolitik: Praktiken des Zeigens und Sehens in den Internationalen Beziehungen, Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag, 65-88.

*(2018) Moving images and the politics of pity: a multi-level approach to the interpretation of images and emotions, in: Maéva Clement and Eric Sangar (eds.): Researching Emotions in IR: Methodological Perspectives on the Emotional Turn, Palgrave MacMillan, 209-230.

(2017) Die Politik der Sicherheit - 9/11 als Katastrophe: Strategien der Versicherheitlichung und Risikobearbeitung, in: Michael Reder, Verena Risse und Mara-Daria Cojacura (ed.): Katastrophen - Perspektiven, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 59-78.

*(2017) Re-constituting NATO: Foundational Narratives of Transatlantic Security Cooperation in the 1950s and 1990s, in: Benjamin Herborth and Gunther Hellmann (eds.): Uses of the West, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 156-178.

*(2016) Imaging Security: A Visual Methodology for Security Studies, in: Gabi Schlag, Julian Junk and Christopher Daase (eds.): Transformations of Security Studies: Dialogues, Diversity and Discipline, London and New York: Routledge, 173-189.

*(2016) Transformations of Security and Security Studies: An Introduction to the Volume, in: Gabi Schlag, Julian Junk and Christopher Daase (eds.): Transformations of Security Studies: Dialogues, Diversity and Discipline, London and New York: Routledge; together with Julian Junk and Christopher Daase, 1-31.

*(2016) A Dialogue on the Identity and Diversity of Security Studies: A Conclusion of the Volume, in: Gabi Schlag, Julian Junk and Christopher Daase (eds.): Transformations of Security Studies: Dialogues, Diversity and Discipline, London and New York: Routledge; together with Julian Junk and Christopher Daase, 233-245.

*(2016) Securitization Theory and the Evolution of NATO, in: Mark Webber and Adrian Hyde-Price (eds.): Theorising NATO: New perspectives on the Atlantic alliance, London and New York: Routledge, 161-182.

(2016) Fictionalizing the facts: Torture and identity in Zero Dark Thirty, in: Gadinger, Frank et al. (eds.): Political Storytelling: From Fact to Fiction, Duisburg: Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global  Cooperation Research, 62-69.

(2015) Außenpolitik, in: Florian Grotz and Dieter Nohlen (eds.): Kleines Lexikon der Politik, 6., aktualisierte und erweiterte Auflage, München: Beck; together with Anna Geis.

(2014) Make it Right: mediale Erzählungen über Katastrophen, in: Gerrit Jasper Schenk, Monica Juneja, Alfried Wieczorek, Christoph Lind (eds.): Von Atlantis bis Heute - Mensch, Natur, Katastrophe, Regensburg: Schnell + Steiner, 219-221.

(2014) A Buddha to Protect: Nargis and the Visual Politics of Security, in: Monica Juneja, Gerrit Jasper Schenk (eds.): Disaster as Image: Iconographies and Media Strategies across Europe and Asia, Regensburg: Schnell + Steiner, 137-146.

German Political Science Association (GPSA)

• Elected member of the Ethics Committee (since 2022)

European International Studies Association (EISA)

• Board Member (2019-2023)
• Portfolio: EWIS (2019-2021), Executive Secretary (2021-2023)

At the Institute of Political Science

• Coordinator for the MA Peace Studies and International Relations, since WiSe 2020/21 in English (Since 2019)
• Coordinator of teaching programs at the Institute of Political Science (Since 2019)

At other Universities

• Preparation and coordination of the reaccreditation of the BA Policial Science, “MA Democracy Research” and “MA International Relations”, Helmut Schmidt University (together with Anna Geis and Michael Grothehammer)
• Member of the Senate Committee Research, Funding and Young Scholars, Helmut Schmidt University, 03/2017-07/2018
• Speaker of the ib-junior research group (IB-Nachwuchsgruppe), GPSA
  • Open letter: “Wissenschaft als Beruf: Für bessere Beschäftigungbedingungen und planbare Perspektiven” (Science as a profession: For better employment conditions and predictable prospects), openpetition (together with Andreas Kruck; 13873 signatories)
• Coordinator for DAAD-funding, Master Program Peace and Conflict Studies, Otto von Guericke-University Magdeburg, 08/2012-09/2015
• Member of the steering board International Postgraduate Centre for Social Sciences (IPC), Goethe-University Frankfurt a.M., 10/2009-07/2012
• Member of the steering board, Institute for Political Sciences, Goethe-University Frankfurt a.M., 10/2006-10/2007
• Member of the search committee, full professorship International Organization, Goethe-University Frankfurt a.M., 2008
• Member of the search committee, full professorship International Relations and World Order Politics, Goethe-University Frankfurt a.M., 2007

• Section chair Visualtiy as methods, EISA, September 2019
• Section chair Visuality and world politics, EISA, September 2017
• Managing Director, 4. Offene Sektionstagung Internationale Politik (German IR-Conference, DVPW), Otto von Guericke-University Magdeburg, 25-27 September 2014
• Co-Speaker of the ib-Nachwuchsgruppe (junior scholar group), German Political Science Association (DVPW), 05/2014-05/2016

Membership

Member of AI (since 2016), ISA (since 2006), DVPW (since 2014), EISA (since 2014)

Reviews

Reviewer for Foreign Policy Analysis, European Journal of International Relations, European Journal of International Security, Security Dialogue, Journal of International Relations and Development, Media, War & Conflict, Millennium, Review of International Studies, Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen, Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung.

Public lectures

• Diplomatie in konfliktreichen Zeiten (translation: Diplomacy in times of crises) lecture and discussion, VHS Tübingen, May 2025.
• Bilder in den internationalen/Internationalen Beziehungen (translation: Images in international relations/International Relations), online lecture, invited by Prof. Oliver Kessler (Political Science), University of Erfurt, January 2022.
• Gender Visual studies and social media, Workshop (online), invited by Dr. Maéva Clément (Political Science), University of Osnabrück, March 2021.
• Visual discourse analysis in IR, honoree class, invited by Prof. Piki ish-Shalom (International Relations), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (online), December 2020.
• Die Ent- und Begrenzung von Gewalt im Internet - Sprache und Bilder im digitalen Zeitalter (translation: The removal and limitation of violence on the Internet - language and images in the digital age), talk at the Annual Conference of the German Political Science Association, tutzing, July 2019.
• Gender and security, Collaborative Research Centre: Dynamics of Security - Types of Securitization from a Historical Perspective, University of Marburg/University of Gießen, September 2018.
• Representing torture: images and narratives of contesting norms in the 'war on terror', International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture, University of Gießen, January 2018.
• Gender_gap in der politischen Arena: Politiker*innen und die Frage der Macht (translation: Gender_gap in the political arena: Politicians and the question of power), Habilitation lecture, Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg, December 2017.
• Reclaiming the Facts!? Die Analyse internationaler Politik in Zeiten von Fake News und Postfaktizität (translation: Reclaiming the Facts!? The Analysis of International Politics in Times of Fake News and Postfacticity), ZIB-Roundtable of the Open Section Conference International Relations (DVPW), October 2017, Bremen.
• Gewalt und Legitimität: Über die Bedeutung von Bildern in den Internationalen Beziehungen (translation: Violence and Legitimacy: On the Meaning of Images in International Relations), lecture as part of the lecture series The Political Image, June 2017, Prof. Bernhard Stahl (Political Science), University of Passau.
• The changing meaning of security, Bucerius Summer School in Global Governance, ANCB: The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory, August 2016, Berlin.
• Wissenschaft als Beruf: Wir brauchen strukturelle Reformen! (translation: Science as a profession: We need structural reforms!), Lecture at the conference Everything excellent - The future of the science system, Friedrich-Ebert Foundation - Network Excellence at German Universities, November 2015, Berlin.
• Die Politik der Sicherheit: Die (Be-)Deutung von Katastrophen und ihre Folgen (translation: The Politics of Security: The Interpretation of Disasters and their Consequences), lecture at the Rottendorf Symposium Disasters - Perspectives, University of Applied Sciences, Prof. Michael Reder (Philosophy), June 2015, Munich.
• The politics of film-making: de-/constructing visual narratives of war and peace, GoEast Film Festival, April 2015, Wiesbaden.

• A Buddha to Protect: The Visual Politics of Security, lecture at the conference Imaging Disaster, March 2012, Prof. Monica Juneja (Art History) and Prof. Gerrit Jasper Schenk (History), Ruprecht-Karls University Heidelberg.

   

Conference presentations (selection)

• Creating Ontological Security in International Relations, Discussant & Chair, Workshop, Dr. Cornelia Baciu und prof. Brent Steele, Kiel University
• Violent images: Understanding the conditions of production and display of violence in global politics, International Studies Association, Conference, March 2023, Montreal.
• Show me your nukes!’ Practices of comparison and visual discourses on security and power in Europe, Bielefeld University, Workshop, Prof. Matthias Albert and Dr. Thomas Müller (Bielefeld University), September 2021.
• Virtual Sites of Remembrance, Centre for Global Cooperation Research, Conference, June 2021, Dr. Katja Freistein, Dr. Frank Gadinger, Dr. Christine Unrau (University of  Duisburg-Essen), online.
• “Experiencing the torture prison” - Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture’s Audio-Visual-Spatial Assemblage of ‘Saydnaya’, EWIS workshop Doing Visual IR, June 2018, Groningen (together with Axel Heck).
• Popular Culture and World Politics, ISA workshop, April 2018, San Francisco.
• Just torture?! - Autobiographical narratives, emotions and the contestation of the anti-torture convention in the 'war on terror', paper prepared for presentation at the ISA, April 2018, San Francisco.
• Governing the female body: Narratives and images of gender, sex, and violence in 'Black Crows' (2017), paper prepared for presentation at the ISA, April 2018, San Francisco.
• Norm contestation at the movies: Representations of torture in Zero Dark Thirty, paper prepared for presentation at the EISA, September 2017, Barcelona.
• Reclaiming the Facts!? Die Analyse internationaler Politik in Zeiten von Fake News und Postfaktizität, ZIB-Roundtable der Offenen Sektionstagung Internationale Beziehungen (DVPW), Oktober 2017, Bremen.
• Gewalt und Legitimität - Über die Bedeutung von Bildern in den Internationalen Beziehungen, Vor-trag im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung Das politische Bild, Juni 2017, Universität Passau.
• Imaging the terrorist: The dis-/embodiment of Osama bin Laden, presentation at the DVPW Congress, University Duisburg-Essen, September 2015, Duisburg.
• Mission Accomplished: Visual Narratives of the "Real and Fictional" Death of Osama bin Laden, paper prepared for presentation at the workshop "Building Stories – Building Cooperation: The role of narrative and fiction as constitutive elements in politics", Käthe-Hamburger Kolleg University Duisburg-Essen, May 2015, Duisburg.
• Sons of Anarchy: Power, Rule and Resistance in International Relations Theory, paper prepared for presentation at ISA, February 2015, New Orleans.
• "The Facts Cannot be Denied": Legitimacy, War and the Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria, paper presented at WISC, August 2014, Frankfurt (together with Anna Geis).
• The Materialism and Materiality of Images: Theorizing Visuality in IR, paper presented at the Millennium Annual Conference, October 2012, London.
• The Politics of Visual Security, paper presented at the SGIR conference meeting, September 2010, Stockholm (together with Axel Heck).
• Reconstituting NATO: Sectoral Patterns of Securitization, De-securitization and Silencing, paper presented at the ECPR workshop, April 2009, Lisbon.
• Humanitarian by "Pictorial Force": Visual Representations and the Public Diplomacy Strategy of the European Union in Africa, paper presented at the ISA annual meeting, February 2009, New York (together with Axel Heck).
• Secur(itiz)ing the West: The Transformation of Western Order, paper presented at the SGIR conference meeting, September 2007, Turin (together with Benjamin Herborth and Gunther Hellmann).
• Europe and the World: Changing Security Practices, Changing Identity? The Case of Congo, paper presented at the ISA annual meeting, February/March 2007, Chicago.
• (Trans-) Forming Boundaries: New Perspectives for European Security and Identity, paper presented at the "European Foreign Policy Conference", LSE and King’s College, June/July 2006, London.

Blog

• Popular Culture Matters! Gendered representations of violence and the ‘fight against the Islamic State’, tbc
• Geschlecht und Sicherheit in historischer Perspektive, Tagungsbericht zum SFP/Transregio Dynamiken der Sicherheit, 11 March 2019, h-soz-kult
• (Not) welcome to the Fortress Europe, 28 March 2016 (with Axel Heck), visualityandglobalpolitics.com
• Plädoyer für eine kritische Filmpolitologie, 25 January 2016 (with Axel Heck), zib-online.org
• Eure Exzellenz … die vielen Gesichter des Wladimir P., 26 March 2014 (with Martin Schmetz), sicherheitspolitik-blog.de
• ESVP-Einsätze: legitim und effizient? Anmerkungen zu einer EUropäischen Sicherheitskultur, 26 October 2012, sicherheitspolitik-blog.de
• Macht der Bilder: Gender und R2P, 18 June 2012, sicherheitspolitik-blog.de
• Stand up for Peace: Youtube, George Clooney und das Ende der Gewalt in Syrien, 23 April 2012, sicherheitspolitik-blog.de
• Der Sicherheitsbegriff im Wandel, 19 December 2011, sicherheitspolitik-blog.de
• Energizing Security: NATO’s Quest for Energy Security, 28 November 2011, sicherheitspolitik-blog.de
• Wie sicher können wir sein? Bilder und Berichte aus Japan, 14 March 2011, sicherheitspolitik-blog.de
• Münchener Sicherheitskonferenz 2011: Sicherheitskultur live! 3-7 February 2011, sicherheitspolitik-blog.de