Research Training Group World Politics RTG 2225
© Jakob Braun / Unsplash
Principal Investigators
Professor Dr. Mathias Albert - Speaker (Political Science/IR)
Mathias Albert is Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of Sociology of Bielefeld University. He works on various aspects of international relations and world society theory, particularly also in a historical sociological perspective. In addition, he works on the politics of the polar regions and for many years has been active in youth research (Shell Jugendstudien). His books include A Theory of World Politics (2016) and Zur Politik der Weltgesellschaft (2002). Edited books include Identities, Borders, Orders (with D. Jacobson and Y. Lapid, 2001), New Systems Theories of World Politics (with L.E. Cederman and A. Wendt, 2010), Bringing Sociology To International Relations (with B. Buzan and M. Zürn, 2013), and What in the World? Understanding Global Social Change (with T. Werron, 2021).
Professor Dr. Ulrike Davy (Law)
Ulrike Davy is professor of constitutional and administrative law, German and international social security law, and comparative law at the Faculty of Law of Bielefeld University. She is a member of the University Council of Bielefeld University, principle investigator in the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1288 Practices of Comparing, and visiting professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Johannesburg. Ulrike's research concentrates on migration and refugee law, history and theory of the welfare state, European social policy, social policy in the Global South, and universal human rights law, in particular, social rights and the right to equality and non-discrimination.
Professor Dr. Angelika Epple (History)
Angelika Epple is professor of modern history, deputy spokesperson of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) SFB 1288 "Practices of Comparing: Ordering and Changing the World" and vice-rector for International Affairs and Diversity. Her research interests include the history of global entanglements, global microhistory and locality studies, gender history, comparative history of historiography, and the communication of comparisons in history.
Professor PhD. Thomas Faist (Sociology)
Thomas Faist (PhD, New School for Social Research) is Professor for the Sociology of Transnationalization, Development and Migration at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University. His fields of interest are transnational relations, citizenship, social inequalities and migration. He is a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Science, Humanities and the Arts. His newest book is "Exit. Eine Theorie globaler Migration für das 21. Jahrhundert" (C.H. Beck, forthcoming 2021).
Professor Dr. Alexandra Kaasch - Deputy Speaker (Political Science/Sociology)
Alexandra Kaasch is Professor in German and Transnational Social Policy at the Faculty of Sociology of Bielefeld University. Her research interests are in the fields of comparative and global social and health policy and governance. She is deputy speaker of the Research Training Group (GRK 2225) 'World Politics', lead editor of the journal 'Global Social Policy' and co-editor the book series 'Research in Comparative and Global Social Policy'. Among her most important publications are International Organizations in Global Social Governance (2021, co-edited with Kerstin Martens and Dennis Niemann), Shaping Global Health Policy (2015), and Transformations in Global and Regional Social Policy (2014, co-edited with Paul Stubbs).
PD Dr. Martin Koch (Political Science/IR)
Martin Koch is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at Bielefeld University. His research interests are international organizations, IR theories, organization studies, inter-organizational relations and international political sociology. In his current research he is working on (i) inter-organizational relations and its contributions to world order (with U. Franke), (ii) international organizations in migration (with M. Geiger), (iii) a theory of world entities (with A. Kuteynikov) and (iv) the role of G20 in world politics.
Professor Dr. Franz Mayer (Law)
Franz Mayer holds the Chair in Public Law, European Law, Public International Law, Comparative Law and Law and Politics at the University of Bielefeld. His research interests focus on EU law, constitutional law and Public International law; in general terms his research interests are best captured by the concepts of europeanization and internationalization of public law. More specifically he works on all aspects of European constitutional law, on European administrative law, on comparative public law with a focus on the US and France, on the relationship between European law and politics, on parliaments in times of globalization, on internet law.
Professor Dr. Christina Morina (History)
Christina Morina is professor of modern and contemporary history at the Faculty of History, Philosophy, and Theology (Institute for History). Her research interests are German history in Europe in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, the history of political ideas, particularly Marxism, socialism, and communism, the political-cultural history of divided and unified Germany, memory culture and politics, and the history of historiography. Christina is co-editor of several academic journals and book series, including Historische Zeitschrift, Historische Politikforschung and Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft.
Professor Dr. Martin Petzke (Historical Sociology)
Martin Petzke is professor of historical sociology at the faculty of sociology. His research interests focus on globalization and world society, the sociology of expertise, religion, immigrant integration, and the state. His current research deals with early "think tanks" at the intersection of social science and politics and their influence on colonial policy in the German colonial empire.
Professor Dr. Angelika Siehr (Law)
Angelika Siehr is professor of public law (i.e. constitutional and administrative law), international law and philosophy of law at the Faculty of Law at Bielefeld University, where she is the dean. Her research is driven by an interdisciplinary approach, focusing on human rights from the perspectives of constitutional law, international law and the philosophy of law. Thereby, she builds a bridge between the history of ideas on human rights, universal human rights law and constitutional guarantees of human rights, pointing out inherent paradoxes of the latter in the view of certain patterns of exclusion. Other areas of research include public space, the legal status of the embryo, questions of belonging to both state and nation, as well as questions of citizenship beyond the nation state.
Professor Dr. Willibald Steinmetz (History)
Willibald Steinmetz is professor of modern political history at the Faculty of History, Philosophy and Theology, Bielefeld University. His research interests include theory and practice of historical discourse analysis, interactions between language use and political action in various institutional settings (18th - 20th centuries) and Anglo-American and continental European traditions of law in comparison (19th - 20th centuries).
Professor Dr. Holger Straßheim (Political Sociology)
Holger Straßheim is Professor of Political Sociology at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University. In his work he explores the intertwinement of science and politics in world society, the role of expertise in public policy, the ways economic discourses shape social regulation and the governance networks in and between policy areas such as consumer policy, food safety, energy, mobility, global health and climate change. Holger is appointed member of the Ethics Commission at Bielefeld University and elected board member at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies of Science (ISOS). He is a member of the editorial board of the Critical Policy Studies Journal and co-editor of the Advances in Critical Policy Book Series. Among his recent publications is the "Handbook of Behavioural Change and Public Policy" (2019, co-edited with S. Beck).
Professor Dr. Andreas Vasilache (Political Science/IR)
Andreas Vasilache is Professor for European Studies at Bielefeld University and Director of the Centre for German and European Studies (ZDES/CGES). His research spans on International Relations (IR), European Studies, International Political Theory (IPT), Security Studies, Europe-Asia Relations, intern- and transcultural relations, as well as borders, boundaries and limits in World Society. Photo (c) DAAD/Andreas Paasch.
Professor Dr. Tobias Werron - Deputy Speaker (Sociology)
Tobias Werron is Professor of Sociological Theory at the Faculty of Sociology of Bielefeld University. His main current areas of research are globalization and world society theory, sociology of competition, media sociology, and the sociology of sport. He is currently working on two books: one about the sociology of competition and another about the "new" nationalism in a historical-sociological perspective. Recent publications in the area of world society studies include the book From Globalization to World Society (2014, ed. together with Boris Holzer and Fatima Kastner) and the articles Violent Conflictions. Armed Conflicts and Global Competition for Attention and Legitimacy (International Journal for Politics, Culture and Society, Online First, 2017, together with Teresa Koloma Beck).