projects.

Below are selected research projects I have managed and secured as principal investigator or worked on as a leading research associate.

German Policy Agendas as Part of the Comparative Agendas Project

Location: University of Konstanz
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: Committee on Research (AFF) at the University of Konstanz; German Research Foundation
Funding period: 2021-2025

The German agenda-setting project develops datasets on issue attention and policymaking in Germany. It codes data from 1978 to 2013, including most-important-problem surveys, media, lobby groups, parliamentary questions, executive speeches, bill proposals, and adopted laws. All data are classified by policy topic according to the Comparative Policy Agendas system.

“Get the Word Out”: The Formation and Political Impact of Judicial Opinion-Writing

Location: Mannheim Centre for European Social Research, University of Mannheim
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: Mannheim Centre for European Social Research
Funding period: 2020-2024

This project studies how courts exercise political power through opinion-writing. Rather than focusing only on whether a legal referral is justified or not justified, the project examines substantive variation in judicial texts and the strategies judges use when writing opinions. It investigates how judges develop arguments to influence societal developments and how political environments constrain judicial reasoning.

Measuring a Common Space and the Dynamics of Reform Positions: Non-Standard Tools, Non-Standard Actors

Location: Collaborative Research Center 884, University of Mannheim
Role: Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Funding: German Research Foundation
Funding period: 2018-2021

This project developed quantitative tools for placing political actors and nonmajoritarian actors in common spaces. The broader goal was to strengthen empirical tools that capture actor positions across different kinds of data, including mass surveys, political speeches, and judicial decisions. These measures are used to test theories in political economy, political representation, and judicial politics.

The German Federal Constitutional Court as a Veto Player: The Constitutional Court Database

Location: Georg-August-University Göttingen / University of Mannheim
Role: Initially PhD Research Fellow; currently Principal Investigator
Funding: German Research Foundation; Mannheim Centre for European Social Research
Funding period: Initially 2011-2015; continuing database maintenance

This project examines when and under what conditions the German Federal Constitutional Court annuls statutes and becomes an effective veto player in Germany’s political system. It studies legislative procedures and rulings of the Federal Constitutional Court and has produced the Constitutional Court Database. The database codes decisions by the Court’s senates using criteria relevant to political science, law, and public research.