Team

Dr. habil. Mareike Gebhardt

Principal Investigator, University of Münster

Political Science | Democratic Theory

mareike.gebhardt@uni-muenster.de 

Mareike Gebhardt holds a doctorate in political science. In her habilitation “Democratic Closure,” she analyzed the European migration regime from a deconstructive and dispositive analytical perspective. Mareike Gebhardt is one of the two principal investigators of ZivDem (Gerda Henkel Foundation, 2022-2025) and co-director of the Centre for European Gender Studies (ZEUGS) at Münster University.

Her research focuses on radical democratic theory, post-structuralism, feminist theory, postcolonial studies, and critical migration and border regime studies.

Find out more about Mareike Gebhardt here

Dr. Lena Laube

Principal Investigator, University of Bonn

Sociology | Border Studies, Refugee Research

llaube@uni-bonn.de 

Lena Laube is Scientific Manager of Forum Internationale Wissenschaft (FIW), Bonn. At FIW’s Department for Research on Democracies, she works as a senior researcher. Lena Laube researches and teaches from a political sociology perspective on European border and migration policy, Search and Rescue Missions, asylum and forced migration, populism, externalization, and international mobility regimes.

She works as one of the two principal investigators of the research group ZivDem (Gerda Henkel Foundation, 2022-2025) and is also executive director of the Forum Internationale Wissenschaft (FIW) at the University of Bonn since 2013.

Learn more about Lena Laube here

Dr. des. Maria Ullrich (on parental leave)

Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Bonn

Social Sciences | Citizenship Studies, Migration Research

maria.ullrich@uni-bonn.de 

Maria Ullrich is a social scientist. She gained her Ph.D. at the University of Siegen, where she wrote her doctoral thesis (in German) at the University of Siegen on “Participation of Refugees. Civil Society Negotiations in the German Reception Context.” Maria Ullrich is also a fellow at Forum Internationale Wissenschaft, Bonn.

Her research interests include interdisciplinary refugee migration and border studies, citizenship studies, and qualitative ethnographic social research.

Learn more about Maria Ullrich here

Sarah Spasiano, MA

Doctoral Researcher, University of Bonn

Anthropology | Migration Research

sarah.spasiano@uni-bonn.de 

Sarah Spasiano studied Anthropology (BA) in Freiburg and International Migration and Intercultural Relations (MA) in Osnabrück and Bologna. Since her bachelor’s thesis, Sarah Spasiano has been involved with critical migration and refugee studies. She is particularly interested in the European border regime, civil society solidarity, and social movements around (forced) migration and refugee protests. In her master thesis, completed in 2021, she focused on civil society support for refugees in the transit country Italy. Since July 2022, Sarah Spasiano writes her doctoral thesis at ZivDem.
 

Learn more about Sarah Spasiano here

Student Assistants

Alba De Curtis | Student Assistant, University of Münster

Alba De Curtis studies political science and law in the Bachelor program "Politik und Recht" in Münster.

Carlotta Laumann | Student Assistant, University of Bonn 

Carlotta Laumann is studyding Political Science and Sociology in the Bachelor program "Politik und Gesellschaft" as well as Psychology as a minor at the  Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn.

Administrative employees

Doris Westhoff | FIW Bonn

Gabriele Erwig | IfPol, University of Münster

Former Student Assistants

Isabel Vehrkamp B.A. | Student Assistant, University of Münster

Bahia Amellal B.A. | Student Assistant, University of Bonn 

Jace Proske B.A. | Student Assistant, University of Bonn

Nina Arndt B.A. | Internship at ZivDem, University of Münster 

Julius Zumbroich | Student Assistant, University of Bonn