Prof. Dr. Daniela Braun

New Professor of Political Science with a focus on European Integration and International Relations

Prof Dr Daniela Braun, formerly Academic Councillor at the Geschwister Scholl Institute of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, is the new Professor of Political Science with a focus on European Integration and International Relations.

Daniela Braun studied Romance Studies (French Linguistics/Spanish Literature) and Sociology at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, where she already dealt with European integration and European societies. In her final thesis, she examined the formation of a European identity in the various member states of the European Union. In addition to her doctorate on the topic of "Political Trust in New Democracies in Europe" as part of the German-French doctoral school CODESE ("Comparing Democratic Societies in Europe") at the University of Stuttgart, she worked as a research assistant at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research.

Since 2010, Daniela Braun has taught and researched first as a research assistant and then as an academic councillor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. There she habilitated on the topic of "Multi-Level Party Politics in Europe" and researched how the structural conditions of the multi-level system of the European Union affect party competition in Europe.

Daniela Braun's research focuses on European elections, party competition in the European multi-level system, and research into political attitudes and the political participation of citizens in Europe. In her BMBF-funded project on "Supporters and Opponents of the European Union" (ProConEU), she and a Europe-wide team of researchers are investigating the consequences of an increasing division in and for Europe using manifesto, Twitter and voter data.

Other focal points of her work are the German and European political systems and gender inequality in politics. In her future research, she would also like to explore the question of why the fight against climate change has not been at the forefront of European politics earlier and more strongly, and what role citizens and political parties play in this.

At Saarland University, Daniela Braun will strengthen the department of "European Social Research" with a focus on political science. This will initially include the establishment of a corresponding pillar in the existing BA programme "European Studies" and, in the long term, the conception of a new Master's programme. In addition, she will continue to advance her existing research focus.

Daniela Braun took up her post as professor at Saarland University on 15 July 2022.