
Primary areas of research
Political (Representative) Elites, Political Transformation in East Germany, Political Culture
Secondary areas of research
Right Wing Extremism, Human Rights Policy, Israeli Politics and Society
Since 2001 Academic Co-ordinator of the Research Project "Representative Elites after Regime Change" (http://www.sfb580.uni-jena.de/typo3/a3.0.html )
2001 PhD dissertation on East German constitution-making (awarded with the Prize of the President of the Thuringian State Parliament for Research on Parliamentary Democracy)
2007 Director of the Workshop "The European Parliament and the Making of a Supranational Elite" at the ECPR Joint Sessions, Helsinki
1996, 1997 Visiting Fellow at the University of Leicester/UK
1995-2001 Researcher at the Department of Politics, Friedrich Schiller University Jena
1994/1995 External Research Assistant at the Institute of European Politics, Bonn
1994 Magister Artium in Political Science, German Philology, Philosophy and Pedagogics (MA Thesis in Political Science on the Intifadah, the Palestinian Uprising in the Israeli Occupied Territories)
1994 Teacher's Degree (Erste Staatsprüfung für Lehrämter Sekundarstufe II & Sekundarstufe I) for Social Sciences and German Language and Literature
1) Representative Elites after Regime Change
(http://www.sfb580.uni-jena.de/typo3/a3.0.html)
2) Politik als Beruf. Special Issue 2009 of the "Politische Vierteljahresschrift" - Journal of the Deutsche Vereinigung für Politische Wissenschaft, to be published in 2009 (co-editor: Werner J. Patzelt)
3) Thüringen-Monitor. Survey of Political Attitudes in Thuringia (since 2000) (yearly reports are available at the website of the Thuringian State Chancellery: www.thueringen.de/de/politisch/tm/)
Most recent English language publications
Political Careers in Europe. Career Patterns in Multi-Level Systems, Baden-Baden: Nomos (edited with St. Jahr) [forthcoming]
MPs in Post-Communist and Post-Soviet Nations: A Parliamentary Elite in the Making, in: The Journal of Legislative Studies 13 (2007), S. 142-163. (with G. Ilonszki)
A Critical Juncture? The 2004 European Elections and the Making of a Supranational Elite, in: Journal of Legislative Studies 11 (2005) 2, S. 254-274 (with L. Verzichelli)
Converging Representative Elites in Europe? An Introduction to the EurElite Project, in: Czech Sociological Review 41 (2005) 3, S. 499-510
Role Perceptions, Party Cohesion and Political Attitudes of East and West German Parliamentarians, in: Czech Sociological Review 41 (2005) 3, S. 375-399 (with L. Vogel)
Member of the editorial board of "Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen" (ww.zparl.de)