I am professor of Empirical Political Science at the University of Duisburg-Essen and a board member of the German Centre of Social Policy Research based jointly in Duisburg and Bremen .
I am also a faculty member of the International Max Planck Research School on the Social and Political Constitution of the Economy, a joint graduate programme of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and the universities of Cologne and Duisburg-Essen.
At the University of Duisburg-Essen, I am a member of the Priority Research Area Transformation of Contemporary Societies and of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Immigration and Integration Research. As ERC mentor, I support our university applicants for ERC Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants, together with Rainer Meckenstock and Gabi Schiering.
I curate the blog “Für die Politik aus der Wissenschaft” in German and English www.politik-wissenschaft.org
As a comparative political scientist and political sociologist, I work at the intersection of political behaviour and welfare state research. I am particularly interested in how large-scale social changes manifest themselves in the politics of individuals. Thus, I conduct research on the politics of population ageing and the political behaviour of immigrants. Empirically, I use both qualitative and quantitative research with a particular focus on survey research.
I teach empirical methods for political science as well as courses related to my research interests. I enjoy using new methods of teaching and sometimes evaluate them rigorously, such as Flipped Classroom Teaching.
I have received major grants by the Funk Foundation (with Rüdiger Kiesel and Andreas Niederberger), by the German Research Foundation for the Immigrant German Election Study I and II (with Dennis Spies and Sabrina Jasmin Mayer) and a Consolidator grant of the European Research Council.
You can also find out more about me in my non-academic curriculum vitae from the perspective of political sociology.