Profile

Professional career

• since 10/2022
  Speaker of the Deans at Leipzig University
• since 05/2022
  Member of the Board of the Research Center for Transformation History at Leipzig University
• 10/2020 - 04/2024
  Coordinator, Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence "The European Union and its Rural Periphery in East Central Europe - Perceptions, Practices and Potentials of EU Citizenship"
• since 06/2020
  Member, Research Institute Social Cohesion (FGZ), institute branch Leipzig
• since 10/2019
  Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences and Philosophy (reelected in 2022)
• 04/2017 - 12/2019
  Managing Director, Institute for Political Science
• since 10/2017
  Member of the Advisory Board for Science, Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Eastern Germany
• 10/2016 - 09/2019
  Vice Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences and Philosophy
• since 05/2015
  Member of the Advisory Board, Saxon State Agency for Civic Education
• 04/2012 - 12/2014
  Managing Director, Institute of Political Science
• since 01/2012
  Chairwoman, Saxon Competence Center for State and Local Politics
• since 04/2011
  Professor of the German Political System and Politics in Europe, Leipzig University
• 10/2010 - 04/2013
  Member of the Editorial board, journal Politische Vierteljahresschrift (German Political Science Quarterly), published by the Executive Board of the German Political Science Association
• 04/2006 - 03/2011
  Junior Professor of German Politics, Institute of Social Sciences at Humboldt University of Berlin
• 02/2006
  Approval by the German Research Foundation (DFG) of funding for the position of research associate at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at Potsdam University (transformed into project funding)
• 10/2005 - 03/2006
  Contract Lecturer (Lehrbeauftragte) of Political Science at Potsdam University and Humboldt University of Berlin (Euromasters, Trans-Atlantic Masters)
• 06/2004 - 09/2006
  Co-Spokeswoman of the Working Group Eastern European Societies in Comparative Perspective, German Political Science Association
• 10/2002 - 09/2005
  Research Assistant to the Chair of German Politics at the Institute of Social Sciences at Humboldt University of Berlin and Contract lecturer (Lehrbeauftragte) at Free University of Berlin and Humboldt University
• 04/2001 - 09/2002
  Contract Lecturer (Lehrbeauftragte) at the Free University of Berlin and Humboldt University Berlin
• 04/1998 - 05/2001
  PhD scholarship of the German Research Foundation (DFG) as member of the Graduate School "The New Europe. National and International Dimensions of Institutional Change" at the Humboldt University Berlin
• 10/1996 - 03/1997
  Student assistant in the research group Leadership groups and 'apparatuses' of the SED regime (Arnd Bauerkämper, Jürgen Danyel, Peter Hübner, Sabine Ross) at the Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam e.V.

Education

• 07/2008
  Venia legendi for political science with the habilitation thesis "Constitutional Amendments in Established Democracies. Motivation and Patterns of Negotiation"
• 05/2001
  Doctorate (Dr. phil.) at the Humboldt University of Berlin, Institute of Social Sciences, with the dissertation "Forward into the Past? The Change of Political Institutions in the Republic of Belarus since 1991".
• 04/1994 - 09/1998
  Eastern European Studies at the Free University of Berlin, completed with the degree Magistra Artium
• 10/1993 - 12/1997
  Study of political science at the Free University of Berlin, graduated with diploma

Panel Memberships

• since 04/2020
  Member of Directors' board, Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe) at Leipzig University (as one representative of the Deans of the cooperating faculties), since 12/2023 represented by Vice Dean Prof. Dr. Patrick Donges
• 10/2019 - 09/2022
  Vice Speaker of the Deans at Leipzig University
• since 10/2019
  Member of the Senate of Leipzig University (as a Dean)
• since 10/2013
  Member of the Faculty Council, Faculty of Social Sciences and Philosophy (elected in 2013, 2016, 2019, 2022)

Prof. Dr Astrid Lorenz is interested in the following research areas:

• Democracy in Europe,
• Constitutional politics and the rule of law,
• Politics in multi-level systems (federations, European Union),
• Transformation of political systems, especially Germany and East Central Europe,
• Europeanization and de-Europeanization processes,
• Interrelation between institutions and actors,
• Emergence, stability and dynamics of political institutions.

She coordinates the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence "The European Union and its Rural Periphery in East Central Europe" at Leipzig University. Furthermore, she is a member of the Research Institute Social Cohesion (FGZ) and an Affiliate Researcher at Leibniz Science Campus "Eastern Europe - Global Area".

Current research projects (funded by, function:

Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence (EU, coordinator/PI)

Rule of law in East Central Europe (BMBF, PI)

Equal living conditions in Germany (BMBF, PI)

Cohesion in regional structural change (BMBF, PI)

Elites Monitor (Federal Government Commissioner for East Germany, PI)

• Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence - "The European Union and Its Rural Periphery in East Central Europe"

  Lorenz, Astrid

  Duration: 10/2020 – 04/2024

  Funded by: EU Europäische Union

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie; Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe)
  show details
• Personelle Unterrepräsentation der Ostdeutschen in zentralen Führungspositionen, Modul 4: Förder- und Aktivierungsmaßnahmen

  Lorenz, Astrid

  Duration: 08/2022 – 07/2025

  Funded by: andere Bundesministerien

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie
  show details
• The Rule of Law in Central and Eastern Europe (Re-Act II)

  Lorenz, Astrid

  Duration: 09/2024 – 09/2027

  Funded by: BMBF Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie
  show details
• Cohesion in Europe-wide accelerated structural change. Interregional transfer of participatory approaches

  Lorenz, Astrid

  Duration: 05/2024 – ongoing

  Funded by: BMBF Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe); Institut für Politikwissenschaft
  show details
• Rule of law in East Central Europe

  Lorenz, Astrid

  Duration: 04/2021 – 03/2024

  Funded by: BMBF Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie; Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe)
  show details

more projects

• Lorenz, A.; Formánková, H. (Eds.)

  Czech Democracy in Crisis

  Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 2020.

  ISBN: 978-3-030-40006-4
  show details
• Lorenz, A.; Anders, L. H. (Eds.)

  Illiberal Trends and Anti-EU Politics in East Central Europe

  Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 2021.

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54674-8
  show details
• Lorenz, A.

  Demokratisierung in Ostdeutschland

  Wiesbaden: Springer VS. 2013.

  ISBN: 978-3-658-03187-9
  show details
• Bos, E.; Lorenz, A. (Eds.)

  Politics and Society in Hungary. (De-)Democratization, Orbán and the EU

  Wiesbaden: Springer. 2022.

  ISBN: 978-3-658-39826-2
  show details
• Meier, K.; Lorenz, A.; Wendel, M. (Eds.)

  Rule of Law and the Judiciary

  Baden-Baden: Nomos. 2023.

  DOI: doi.org/10.5771/9783748940999
  show details

more publications

• Konferenz (gefördert durch die Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung)

  1989/90 – Aufbruch ohne Ende?

  Politisches System Deutschlands und Politik in Europa

  Event Organiser: Vogel, Lars; Lorenz, Astrid; Pates, Rebecca

  21/11/2019 – 22/11/2019
  show details
• Vortragsreihe (gefördert durch die Europäische Union, Jean Monnet Chair)

  Krise und europäische Integration

  Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie

  Event Organiser: Lorenz, Astrid

  12/10/2016 – 31/01/2020
  show details
• Konferenz

  Tagung Politik, Region(en) und Kultur in der vergleichenden Politikwissenschaft

  Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie

  Event Organiser: Pickel, Gert; Lorenz, Astrid

  09/10/2013 – 11/10/2013
  show details
• Internationale Konferenz

  Rule of Law and the Judiciary in the EU Member States: Interdisciplinary and Comparative Perspectives

  Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie; Öffentliches Recht, Europa- und Völkerrecht, Migrationsrecht und Rechtsvergleichung

  Event Organiser: Lorenz, Astrid; Wendel, Mattias

  28/01/2022
  show details
• Internationale Konferenz

  The Rule of Law – Bridging or Sanctioning Differences?

  Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie; Juristenfakultät

  Event Organiser: Lorenz, Astrid; Wendel, Mattias

  28/09/2023 – 29/09/2023
  show details

more events

Prof. Dr. Astrid Lorenz teaches on the following topics:

• German political system
• Political systems in comparitive perspective,
• Democracy in Europe,
• Politics and law in the European multi-level system,
• Government, political actors and institutions,
• Transformation processes,
• Federal and state politics in Germany,
• Europeanization and de-Europeanization,
• Political participation.

• Lecture "Democratic Governance. Actors and Interactions in the Federal Republic of Germany"

  each summer term

  The lecture gives an overview of approaches to study governance, actors (Parties, media and others), policy-making and policy implementation. Empirically, it focuses on Germany.

• Lecture "Political Systems"

  each winter term

  The lecture gives an overview of approaches and models of comparative political science and political institutions. Empirically, it is focused on Europe.

• "Rule of law in the European multi-level system"

  each winter term

• "Interest Representation and Citizen participation in the EU multi-level system"

  each summer term

• Seminars covering changing other topics

• Jour fixe for BA, MA and Staatsexamen theses

  monthly, each 1st wednesday, starting 11 a.m.

• Colloquium for PhD students and Postdocs

  monthly, each 3rd wednesday, starting 11 a.m.