I’m a political scientist interested in autocratization in Hungary and Poland, European Union politics, and judicial politics. I’m a DPhil candidate at the University of Oxford and Wolfson College and a researcher at the Judicial Studies Institute (JUSTIN) at Masaryk University. At JUSTIN, I work on the ERC Consolidator Grant project INFINITY – ‘Informal Judicial Institutions: Invisible Determinants of Democratic Decay’.
At the University of Oxford, I was one of the founders and convenors of a graduate discussion group (OxonCourts) that served as an interdisciplinary forum for researchers working on judicial institutions across the University. I represented for 3 years non-tenured researchers and graduate students at Wolfson College. This involved me in virtually all aspects of College governance and strategy. In 2019, I was elected as the Chair of the General Meeting – the Common Room President – and participated in this capacity in many committees dealing with issues as diverse as academic affairs, communications, the College premises, equality and welfare as well as social and cultural matters. I was also twice elected to the Governing Body (2019–21) and served for two years on the General Purposes Committee (2018–20).
I hold degrees in Political Science from Friedrich Schiller University Jena (M.A., B.A.) and have studied as a graduate exchange student in Michigan and South Korea. My master’s thesis was awarded the Jena Political Science Department’s best thesis award in 2016. Before joining Oxford, I taught classes in political science at Jena.
DPhil candidate in Socio-Legal Studies
University of Oxford
M.A. in Political Science
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
2021. ‘Mapping Attacks on Courts and the European Union’s Protection of the Rule of Law in Hungary and Poland’. ECPR GC (virtual, 09/2021).
2021. ‘Public Diplomacy in Backsliding Regimes? Hungary and Poland’. ECPR SGEU (virtual, 06/2021).
2021. ‘Public Diplomacy in a Hybrid Regime: A Case Study on Hungary’. Research Seminar of the Judicial Studies Institute (Masaryk University, virtual, 05/2021) [Invited talk].
2021. ‘The Rule of Law and Public Diplomacy: A Case Study on Hungary’. Workshop: Courts and Regulation in Action: From Activism to Innovation? (University of Oxford, virtual, 03/2021).
2019. ‘Conceptualizing Political Interference with Courts’. ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops. Judicial Authority Under Pressure: Politicisation and Backlash against Courts in the Age of Populism (UCLouvain Mons, 04/2019).
2018. ‘Insurance, Backlash, and the Unsustainability of Judicial Authority’. Workshop: Dialogues on Law and Politics (University of Oxford, 10/2018).
2013. ‘Dan Quayle (1989–1993) – the Vice President as a burden on the presidency’. Workshop: The Vice President of the United States (Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 07/2013).
2021. ‘Commissioned Book Review: Benjamin Bricker, Visions of Judicial Review: A Comparative Examination of Courts and Policy in Democracies’. Political Studies Review 19(3), NP21–NP22. [open access]
2020. ‘Commissioned Book Review: Wojciech Sadurski, Poland’s Constitutional Breakdown (Oxford Comparative Constitutionalism)’. Political Studies Review 18(4), NP11–NP12.
2020. ‘In the Orbit of Democracy: Satellite Parties in South Korea’s 2020 Parliamentary Election’. Oxford University Politics Blog.
2018. [with Jamie McLoughlin] ‘United States of America’. Religious Exemptions for the Solemnisation of Same Sex Unions, ed. by Rishika Sahgal, Gauri Pillai, and Katy Sheridan. Oxford Pro Bono Publico: 45–52.