Team
Principal Investigator
Claudia Wiesner is Professor of Political Science at Fulda University of Applied Sciences, a member of the board of directors of the “Point Alpha Research Institute”, and adjunct Professor in Political Science at Jyväskylä University (Finland). She directs the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence “Europe in the World, is a PI in several other international research projects and networks, and has been a Visiting Fellow at Institutions such as the Minda de Gunzburg Centre for European Studies at Harvard University, New York University, the Robert Schumann Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute (EUI), and the Berlin Social Sciences Centre (WZB). Wiesner´s main research focuses on Europe in the World and the comparative study of democracy and governance in the EU, putting particular emphasis on the related concepts, ideas and theories. She has published with publishers such as Palgrave Macmillan, Routledge, Springer and Nomos and journal special issues and articles in journals such as Contemporary Political Theory, integration, Journal of European Integration, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Leviathan, Politics and Governance, Political Research Exchange, Politische Vierteljahresschrift, Redescriptions, Parliaments, Estates and Representation, Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft and Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft. Her most recent books are "Politicisation, Democratisation and Identity formation in the EU" (Routledge 2024) and "The War Against Ukraine and the EU: Facing New Realities" (Palgrave Macmillan 2024, edited by Claudia Wiesner and Michèle Knodt).
Muriel Cathérine Pluschke is a research assistant, PhD student and lecturer at the Faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences at Fulda University of Applied Sciences. She is working on her PhD project on the subject of “Top-down und bottom-up Dynamiken europäischer Öffentlichkeit im Lokalen” (Top-down and bottom-up dynamics of a European public sphere in the Local). Her research interests focus on the European Union and European Integration, the building of a European Public Sphere, (local) Journalism as well as Democracy. Muriel C. Pluschke holds a Bachelor's degree in Politics and Economics from Bielefeld University and a Master's degree in “Intercultural Communication and European Studies” from Fulda University of Applied Sciences.
Zhylien Kaja is a doctoral research assistant at the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences at Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Germany. He holds a Master’s degree in Intercultural Communication and European Studies from Fulda University of Applied Sciences and a Bachelor’s degree in British and American Studies from the University of Tirana. Kaja has contributed to several international research projects, including Theorising the EU's Crisis, Debating Europe with Its Citizens, Practising Transnational Politics – Collaboration Lviv, and Transnational Governance and Human Rights at the Centre of Transnational Governance. He is currently involved in the projects Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence "Europe in the World" and Resilient Social Contracts for Democratic Societies.
His academic and research interests center on European integration, civil society, democracy, and the Western Balkans. His Ph.D. research examines the role of civil society in political transformation in the Western Balkans, with a particular focus on how civil society actors perceive certain political changes as key to accelerating EU accession and advancing democratic consolidation in Albania, Kosovo, and Serbia.
Jessica Schmidt joined the Fulda University of Applied Sciences in September 2024. She has received her PhD in Politics and International Relations from the University of Westminster, London, UK with a thesis tracing the shifting notion of democracy in discourses of international policymaking from the cold war to climate change policy programming. She has completed a post-doc fellowship at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg/ Centre for Global Cooperation Research, Duisburg, Germany. Jessica then left academia and was trained as a forestry worker. Before rejoining academic life, she has worked at the press office of HessenForst where she is currently on leave.
Her research interests sit at the intersection of political theory and policy discourse working on questions around rationalities of governance with a focus on the rise of complexity thinking and posthumanist approaches. She has published in various international journals and edited volumes on democracy promotion, climate change, resilience and neoliberalism. Her current research interests include Anthropocene thinking, crises of democracy and rationalities of Anticipatory Governance.
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