University of Mannheim
Ph.D. Candidate
I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at the Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences (GESS) of the University of Mannheim and previously a Research Associate at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) and the Collaborative Research Center 884 “Political Economy of Reforms.” My research is primarily situated in judicial politics, examining the strategic interactions between judicial institutions, political actors, and interest groups in different contexts. My methodological competencies encompass Bayesian and frequentist inference, simulation, Natural Language Processing (NLP), data visualization and automated scraping, as well as supervised classification and other machine learning methods utilizing R, Python and SQL.
I specialize in the use of quantitative methods to collect and analyze judicial decisions, public communication (e.g. press releases), and the positioning of courts in a common policy space with political actors. My research has been published or is forthcoming in leading journals, including the Journal of Politics, and presented at major international conferences such as the European Political Science Association (EPSA) and the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR).
My doctoral research investigates how constitutional courts generate publicity for their decisions and the ways in which interest groups shape this publicity. Using quantitative text analysis and inferential statistical methods—including regression analyses, bootstrapping, and simulations—I systematically examine judicial procedures and decisions including briefs submitted to courts by various actors, the occurrence of oral hearings, and media coverage. Interest groups play a dual role: they participate directly through briefs and oral hearings, and indirectly as intermediaries who facilitate communication between courts, journalists, and the broader public. As such, they act as communication agents to courts. Empirically, I focus on the German Federal Constitutional Court and the Israeli High Court of Justice to assess the influence of interest groups on the courts’ public visibility.
In addition to my research activities, I have taught graduate and undergraduate courses in quantitative methods and data analysis at the University of Mannheim. I have also been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Faculty of Law of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem funded by the Minerva Foundation, a subsidiary of the Max Planck Society. Additionally, I served as a reviewer for the Journal of Politics and the Journal of Law, Economics and Organization.
Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science
Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences, University of Mannheim
Visiting Research Fellow
Faculty of Law, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
M.A. Political Science
University of Mannheim
B.A. Political Science
University of Mannheim
How can we estimate positions of non-majoritarian institutions in a common policy space? To answer this question, we take the highest courts as examples of powerful non-majoritarian institutions and develop…
This manuscript contrasts two different explanations for interest groups litigation strategies at the Israeli High Court of Justice. On the one hand, resourceful actors with experience in litigation are expected…
Constitutional courts make final decisions to resolve important disputes but sometimes they face governments that oppose and potentially evade judicial decisions. In response to such challenges, courts employ procedural strategies,…
Presented at:
First Joint Global Politics of Law & Courts Workshop, Berlin/Atlanta, October 2022.
How do justices manage the transparency surrounding their decisions through strategic opinion-writing? To ensure compliance with decisions justices require public support. The more transparent the environment, the more likely the…
Presented at:
13th Annual Conference of the European Political Science Association (EPSA), Glasgow, June 2023.
Case complexity is a key predictor in many studies of judicial politics. Specifically, case complexity is used to explain judicial behaviour towards politics and society. However, the definition and operationalization…
Presented at:
13th Annual Conference of the European Political Science Association (EPSA), Glasgow, June 2023.
Highest courts make final decisions but lack the means to enforce them. Consequently, their external environment can change utility calculations behind judicial decision-making, as well as the subsequent policy implementation…
Presented at:
12th Annual Meeting of the European Political Science Association (EPSA), Prague, June 2022.
Highest courts need to rely on external actors to enforce compliance with decision-making. Therefore, courts seek to mobilize the public to hold governments accountable. In doing so, courts become constrained…
Presented at:
15th General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), online, August 2021
11th Annual Conference of the European Political Science Association (EPSA), online, June 2021.
How does public scrutiny affect the opinion-formation of highest courts? Established scholarship shows that public opinion impacts the outcome of judicial decision-making. However, while the focus of judicial politics research…
Presented at:
14th General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), online, August 2020
10th Annual Conference of the European Political Science Assocation (EPSA), online, June 2020.
Public perception of constitutional court decision and the influence of interest groups
Minerva stipend for a research stay at the Faculty of Law at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, supervised by Prof. Keren Weinshall.
The DataFest Germany 2019 was a complete success for our students of the Master's Program in Political Science. A team of second year Master students won the award for ”Best Insight“. Congratulations to the ”Data Dealers“ — Na Hee Shin, Ziad Elgendy, David Grundmanns, Yannick Deepen and Damir Gojsic — who convinced everyone in the jury from industry and academia. Our special congratulations go to our current student Ziad Elgendy and to David Grundmanns, our student assistants!
With that success the Best Insight award at the DataFest Germany went to political scientists from Mannheim for the third year in a row.
Team award for “Best use of outside data”
A Team of second year Master in Political Science students won the award for „Best Insight“. The Team „InDataVeritas“ consisted of Thomas Alcock, Erik Kückelheim, Viktoriia Semenova und David Weyrauch.
Another Team of first year Master in Political Science students won the awards for „Best use of outside data“. The Team „Stargazers“ consisted of Katya Beebe, David Grundmanns, Yannick Deepen, Oliver Rittmann und Rebecca Weiss. Our special congratulations go to Viktoriia Semenova and Thomas Alcock who are currently writing their Master Thesis at our chair and to Oliver Rittmann, our research student!
Syllabus Evaluations Average instructor grade received by evaluations: 1.0
Syllabus Evaluations Average instructor grade received by evaluations: 1.3
Highly committed, thank you!
Big thanks to all instructors!
Very well structured course.
