Dr. Sabine Volk

Current research projects:

• The Translocal Far Right in Europe: Exploring the Mobilization Against ‘Gender’ (REXGEN): Far-right actors increasingly mobilize on the issues of gender equality and sexual diversity. This project bridges three current debates within the field of far-right studies – antigenderism, translocalism, and mainstreaming – to explain the new mobilization strategies of the far right. 
  Article in European Societies
  Article in German Politics
  Article in German-language journal Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen  

Finished research projects (selection)

• Delayed Transformational Fatigue in Central and Eastern Europe: Responding to the Rise of Illiberalism/Populism (FATIGUE, PI: Jan Kubik & Richard Mole, UCL SSEES): Transdisciplinary project by fifteen early stage researchers at six different European institutions. We study the rise of illiberal actors in Central and Eastern Europe from a comparative perspective.
  Article in Political Research Exchange in 2023
  Special issue out in East European Politics, Societies, and Cultures out in 2025
  Edited volume out in UCL Press in October 2025
• The far right before the European Elections 2024 (PI: Léonie de Jonge): Transdisciplinary project by female research in cooperation with Apache in Belgium. We provide an overview of the state of far-right parties and movements in the 27 member states of the European Union.
  URL: https://xrechtseuropa.apache.be/
• Now-Time, Us-Space: Hegemonic Mobilisations in Central and Eastern Europe (NTUS, PI: Emilia Palonen): Transdisciplinary project by an international team based at the Hub on Emotions, Populism and Polarisation (HEPP) at the University of Helsinki. We study the politics of space and time by populist actors in Central and Eastern Europe from a Laclaudian perspective, also drawing on Walter Benjamin. 
  Article in European Politics and Society in 2022
  Special issue in Frontiers in Political Science in 2021

Other activities and memberships (selection):

• since 2025: Co-convenor of the DVPW working group on Populism
• since 2023: Co-editor of the newsletter e-Extreme of the Standing Group on Extremism and Democracy (E&D) of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR)
• since 2023: Co-editor of the journal division “ipb beobachtet” of the German-language Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen
• 2023–2025: Deputy equal Opportunity Commissioner of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Education, University of Passau

Grants and prizes:

• Postdoctoral research grant, Bavarian Equity Promotion (2024/25)
• Congress travel grant, Equity Office University of Passau (2023)
• Doctoral research grant, Kone Foundation (2021/22)
• Best Student Award in the Major “European History and Civilization”, College of Europe (2018)
• Nominated for the Euroculture ALBA Thesis Prize (2018)
• Graduate stipend European Neighborhood Policy Scholarship, College of Europe (2017/18)
• Travel grant by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for an internship at the German Embassy Paris (2015)
• Undergraduate and graduate stipend by the German National Academic Foundation (2011–2018)

• since April 2025: Postdoctoral research associate at IRex in the field of Political Actors and Ideologies, University of Tübingen
• 2022–2025: Postdoctoral research associate at the Chair of Political Science and Comparative Government (Prof. Dr. Lars Rensmann), Faculty of Social Sciences and Education, University of Passau
• 2024: PhD in Political and Administrative Sciences, Faculty of Political and International Studies, Jagiellonian University Kraków (distinction). Visiting fellowships at  MIDEM (TU Dresden), HEPP (University of Helsinki), C-REX (University of Oslo)
• 2021–2022: Research associate in the project  Now-time, us-space: Hegemonic mobilisations in Central and Eastern Europe (NTUS) under Emilia Palonen at Hub for Emotions, Populism and Polarisation (HEPP), University of Helsinki
• 2018–2022: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Early Stage Researcher in the Horizon 2020 project  Delayed Transformational Fatigue in Central and Eastern Europe: Responding to the Rise of Illiberalism/Populism (FATIGUE) under Jan Kubik und Richard Mole at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London (UCL SSEES)
• 2018: MA in European Interdisciplinary Studies, College of Europe (excellent)
• 2017: MA in Erasmus Mundus Programme of Excellence: Euroculture, Universities of Groningen and Strasbourg (distinction)
• 2015: BA in Rhetoric and Media Studies, University of Tübingen (1,1)

GoogleScholar

Special issues: 

Olivas Osuna, J., Prentoulis, M., & Volk, S. (2025). Populism and the Border: Theoretically and Empirically Dissecting Strategies of Exclusion and the Recreation of Identities. Special Issue in Frontiers in Political Science, 7.

Volk, S. & Ivanov, D. (2025). Populism in Central and Eastern Europe: Manifestations and Impact in Interdisciplinary Perspective. Special Issue in East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures, 39(2).

van der Waal, M., Van Weyenberg, A., & Volk, S. (2022). Heritage and the Making of ‘Europe.’ Special Issue in Journal of European Studies, 52(3–4).

Articles: 

Volk, S. (2025). The AfD and Antifeminism in Germany, 2014–2025: Family First, Trans Panic Second. German Politics. Online first.

Volk, S. (2025). Pride im Visier: Queerfeindlichkeit, Rechtsextremismus und die aktuelle Bewegungsforschung. Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen, 38(3): 517–527.

Weisskircher, M. & Volk, S. (2025). The People against the Sun? Ideology and Strategy in Far-Right Climate Obstruction of Solar Energy. Environmental Politics. Online first.  

Volk, S. (2025). Rallying 'round the Drag: Anti-gender Mobilization and the Mainstreaming of the Far Right. European Societies, 27(1):59–82. Online first.

Volk, S. & Weisskircher, M. (2024). Defending Democracy Against the ‘Corona dictatorship’? Far-right PEGIDA During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Social Movement Studies, 23(6), 719–737.

Volk, S. (2023). Rechtsaußen-Akteure und der russische Angriffskrieg in der Ukraine: Außenpolitische Differenzen?, in Jahrbuch Extremismus und Demokratie, hrsg. U. Backes, A. Gallus, E. Jesse & T. Thieme, 161–173. Nomos. 

Volk, S. & Weisskircher, M. (2023). The Importance of Subnational Strongholds for the Far Right: The East-West Divide in Germany, in The Routledge Handbook of Far-Right Extremism in Europe, hrsg. K. Kondor & M. Littler, 55–66. Routledge.

Volk, S. & Weisskircher, M. (2023). Far-right PEGIDA: Non-violent Protest and the Blurred Lines Between the Radical and Extreme Right, in The Routledge Handbook on Non-violent Extremism, hrsg. W. Allchorn & E. Orofino, 322–333. Routledge.

Volk, S. (2023). Resisting ‘Leftist Dictatorship’? Memory Politics and Collective Action Framing in Populist Far-right Street Protest, European Politics and Society, 24(5), 535–551.

Volk, S. (2022). Far-right Digital Activism During and Beyond the Pandemic: A Patchwork Ethnographic Approach. Ethnologia Polona, 43, 101–116.

Volk, S. (2022). Explaining PEGIDA’s ‘Strange Survival’: An Ethnographic Approach to Far-right Protest Rituals, Political Research Exchange, 4(1).

Volk, S. (2022). Conceptualizing Europe from the Far Right: The Mobilization of Intellectual Heritage in Germany, Journal of European Studies, 52(3-4), 238–254.

Volk, S. (2021). Die rechtspopulistische PEGIDA in der COVID-19-Pandemie. Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen, 34(2), 235–248.

Volk, S. (2020). “Wir sind das Volk!” Representative Claim-making and Populist Style in the PEGIDA Movement’s Discourse, German Politics, 29(4), 599–616.

Volk, S. (2019). Speaking for “the European People”? How the Transnational Alliance Fortress Europe Constructs a Populist Counter-narrative to European Integration, Politique Européenne, 66, 120–149.