About me

I am a Postdoc at the Institute of Political Science at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg in a project on the Academic Freedom Index. My research (also published as Lars Pelke) has been published or is forthcoming in over 15 journals or volumes, including the Democratization, European Policy Review, Swiss Politial Science Review, Contemporary Politics, International Area Studies Review, and Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft. My work on the Academic Freedom Index has received coverage by media such as Forbes, Spiegel Online, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, die ZEIT, Times Higher Education, among others.

My research focuses on three separate areas, namely conceptualization and measurement of regime transformation episodes, and political economy of inequalities, and academic freedom. I studied Political Science and Public Law in Heidelberg and received a B.A in Political Science and Public Law, and a M.A. in Political Science from Heidelberg University. In 2021, I received a PhD from Heidelberg University (summa cum laude). My paper-based PhD project, “Rethinking Inequality under Autocracy. Parties, Citizens and Preferences” investigated whether and how the institutional foundations of autocracies determine economic and political inequalities, and whether and how these inequalities affect ordinary citizens in the short and long-term. Three papers from my PhD project were published in Democratization, Contemporary Politics, and Comparative Governance and Politics.

Between April 2019 and January 2022, I have been research associate at the Institute of Political Science at Heidelberg University. During my studies, I was involved in research projects as a student assistant and did an internship at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB). Between October 2018 and September 2019, I was a research fellow at GIGA Hamburg in the Dictator’s Endgames project, funded by the DFG. For additional information, please refer to my curriculum vitae.

On this website, you will find further information on my research and teaching. Thank you for your interest and please feel free to contact me.