Marianne Kneuer

Marianne Kneuer is professor of comparative politics and director of the Institute of Political Science at the Dresden University of Technology. Her research focuses on democracy and autocracy studies, with particular interest in regime change and democratic erosion, external factors (promotion and diffusion) of democratization and autocratization, and foreign policy of autocratic regimes, as well as legitimation strategies of autocracies.

With her research appearing in journals such as Democratization, Third World Quarterly, International Political Science Review, and the Bulletin of Latin American Research, Kneuer published her latest book, Authoritarian Gravity Centers (with Thomas Demmelhuber), in 2020 with Routledge Press. She is co-founder and co-editor of the German Journal of Comparative Studies and of several book series.

While at Kellogg, her research project will look into what happens after democratic erosion takes place, exploring post-erosion democratic trajectories. Her work will include an analysis of the reversal of democratic erosion and consequent democratic reconstruction, as well as an empirical exploration of the reversal of democratic erosion in an in-depth small-n comparative analysis.

Previously, Kneuer was professor at the University of Hildesheim (2011-2021), where she also was director of the Institute of Social Sciences (2012-2019). In other professional endeavors, she has worked as a political journalist and was a member of the planning staff and speech writer of German President Roman Herzog. Kneuer has held leadership positions in the International Political Science Association (IPSA), as its first vice president (2016-2018), as president (2018-2021) and as past president (2021-2023).

She holds a PhD in philosophy from Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität in Bonn, Germany.