About me

In 2010 I received a PhD in African Studies from the University of Leipzig. Until 2018 I held a Postdoc position at the Chair of International Relations and Conflict Management (Prof. Katharina Holzinger) at the University of Konstanz, Department of Politics and Public Administration. Since August 2018 I work as an independent senior researcher at the University of Konstanz, directing the EU funded project “Do Legislatures Enhances Democracy in Africa? DLEDA” (ERC Starting Grant 2017-759537).

My research interests lie in the field of African politics and political sociology with a particular focus on democratization and electoral autocracies. My habilitation project dealt with political elites and their formal and informal networks in Ghana, Togo, and Sierra Leone. The current project DLEDA seeks to understand the role of parliaments across different regime types in Africa. It includes seven case studies: Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Gabon, Tanzania, Togo, and Zimbabwe.