Leonie Holthaus
Picture: L. Holthaus

Dr. Leonie Holthaus

Research Associate (absent)

Working area(s)

Transnational Governance

Contact

Work S3|12 534
Residenzschloss 1
64283 Darmstadt

Leonie Holthaus works as a senior research fellow at the Institute of Political Science at the chair for “Transnational Governance”. Her research is focused on the theory and history of international relations, international organizations and civil society, and democratization, in particular in the region of the Middle East and North Africa and the Gulf Monarchies.

Her recent research approaches democracy promotion and democracy promotion expertise from sociological and practice theoretical perspectives. In this contexts, she cooperates with Prof. Dr. Michael Christensen (Carleton University) and members of the network External Democracy Promotion. More recently, she became interested in climate activism and emotions.

Among Leonie’s international cooperation partners is Prof. Dr. Michael Christensen. She is also a member of the network External Democracy Promotion https://www.external-democracy-promotion.eu/

Interview

Dr. Leonie Holthaus hat ein kurzes Interview zur WM 2022 und der Lage der Menschenrechte in Katar gegeben:

Mehr erfahren

Research interests

Civil Society

Democratization

International Relations

International Organizations

Postcolonial Studies

Practice Theory

Qualitative Methodologies

Current Position
10/2017 – Senior Research Fellow, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
Previous Positions
04/2020 – 09/2020 Acting Professor of International Politics, Potsdam University, Germany
10/2015 – 10/2017 Senior Research Fellow, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany; Associative of the Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders” Research Network, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
10/2010 – 09/2015 Research Fellow, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany; Associative of the Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders” Research Network, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
10/2010 – 02/2011 Associate Lecturer, Philipps University of Marburg, Germany
08/2009 – 07/2014 Freelance work (Lecturer at ‘European Union Days’ at High Schools) with the Institute of Political Education of the State Hessen, Wiesbaden, Germany
10/2007 – 07/2010
Student Assistant at the Chairs of Prof. Dr. von Bredow, Prof. Dr. Berg-Schlosser, and Prof. Dr. Noetzel, Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany
Academic Education
05/2011 – 12/2015 PhD (summa cum laude) “Justifications of International Functionalism;” Supervision by Prof. Dr. Jens Steffek (Technical University of Darmstadt) and Prof. Dr. Duncan Bell (University of Cambridge), Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
10/2004 – 05/2010 State examination in Political Science, German Language and Literature; Graduation (High Distinction), Philipps-University Marburg, Germany
08 – 12/2006 Visiting Student at the American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Professionalization
06/2020 – 11/2021
ProProfessur – Mentoring Hessen, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Mentor: Prof. Dr. Tina Freyburg, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
Visiting Research Fellowships
02 – 03/2020 Erasmus Staff Exchange/Visiting Research Fellow, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
11/2017
Erasmus Staff Exchange, Division of History and Politics, University of Stirling, Scotland
02 – 03/2016 Visiting Research Fellow, School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland, Australia
10/2015
Erasmus Staff Exchange, Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University, Wales
04 – 07/2012 Research stay, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Collaboration (Selection)
National Prof. Dr. Marina Mateo Martinez (Academy of Fine Arts, Munich)

Dr. Henrike Knappe (Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam)
Prof. Dr. Jonas Wolff (Goethe University, Frankfurt)
International
Prof. Dr. Sarah Bush (Yale University)
Prof. Dr. Michael Christensen (Carleton University)
Knowledge Transfer and Policy Advice (Selection)
2020 Democracy promotion and German development cooperation/Mercator Science-Policy Fellowship Programs
2017 – Civil society aid in Tunisia/Knowledge sharing and policy advise for the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Tunis, Tunisia
2015 Modern slavery in the Arab Gulf/Knowledge sharing with Amnesty International
University Service
2021 nization and Moderation of the Eugen-Kogon-Lecture „Decline of the Left, the Rise of Populism and Democratic Dissatisfaction”, Prof. Dr. Sheri Berman (Columbia University), online, December 2, 2021, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
2020 – Member of the Working Group on Sustainability, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
2021 Coordinator of the Presentation of the Institute of Political Science at the ‘Hochschul- und Berufsinformationstage’ (Higher Education Information Days), Darmstadt, Germany
2019 Member of the Appointments Committee for the Full Professorship “Peace and Conflict Studies”, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
2016 – 17 Member of the Appointments Committee for the Full Professorship “Administrative Studies and Public Policy”, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
2015 Member of the Appointments Committee for the Junior Professorship on “Models of Housing and Energy Policy”, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
2014 – 15 Member of the Selection Committee “Peace and Conflict Studies”, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
2012 Member of the Working Group on the Introduction of Cumulative Dissertations at the Institute of Political Science, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
Ad hoc reviewing for
Current Sociology
Democratization
European Journal of International Relations
Global Policy
International Studies Quarterly
Modern Intellectual History
Review of International Studies
Voluntas – International Journal of Voluntary and Non-Profit Organizations
Membership in Scientific Associations
2016 – European International Studies Association
2013 – International Studies Association
2010 – German Political Science Association
2008 – 12 German Middle East Studies Association for Contemporary Research and Documentation
Invited Talks
Holthaus, Leonie (2022): Rereading Pierre Bourdieu in view of Global Political Sociology, research colloquium of Prof. Dr. Thorsten Bonacker, Philipps University of Marburg, Germany, June 29, 2022.
Holthaus, Leonie (2019): Die Ursprünge von Global Governance: Vom 19. Jahrhundert zu den Vereinten Nationen, research colloquium of Dr. Siegfried Schieder, Heidelberg University, Germany, June 5, 2019.
Holthaus, Leonie (2016): International Analogies: International Thought and the Reconfiguration of Democratic Ideas, research seminar of the School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland, Australia, March 3, 2016.
Holthaus, Leonie (2015): International Analogies and Domestic Reform Proposals, research seminar of the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University, Wales, October 8, 2015.
Panel, Workshop and Conference Organization
Organizer of the workshop “Herrschaftslegitimation, Magnet der Kritik, oder unpolitisches Sportereignis? Analysen der FIFA 2022 in Katar” (Preliminary title: Legitimizing power, magnet of criticism, or apolitical sports event? Analyses of the FIFA 2022 in Qatar), Schader Stiftung/Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, October 27, 2022.
Organizer of the panel “Doing Historical Practice Theory”, European International Studies Association (EISA) Pan-European Conference on International Relations (PEC), Athens, Greece, September 1 – 4, 2022.
Organizer of the panel “Practice Theoretical Perspectives on Diplomacy and the Foreign Policy of the European Union”, EISA PEC, Athens, Greece, September 1 – 4, 2022.
Organizer of the panel (with Prof. Dr. Jonas Wolff, Goethe University Frankfurt) “Democracy Promotion as a Changing Constellation of Practices”, ISA Annual Convention, Nashville, United States of America, March 28 – April 2, 2022.
Organizer of the panel (with Prof. Dr. Felix Rösch, Coventry University) “Doing Historical Practice Theory”, ISA Annual Convention, Nashville, United States of America, March 28 – April 2, 2022.
Organizer of the panel (with Dr. Andrea Schapper, Stirling University) “International Practices and Knowledge Diffusion: Academic and Practical Knowledge”, EISA Annual Convention, online, September 13 – 17, 2021.
Organizer of the workshop (with Prof. Dr. Sarah Bush, Yale University) “Theories and Practices of Democracy Promotion”, Technical University of Darmstadt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, June 13, 2019.
Organizer of and panelist at the panel “Democracy Beyond the National Frontier: Transnational Democracy in Historical, Normative, and Contemporary Perspective”, at the Annual Convention of German Political Science Association “The Frontiers of Democracy”, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, September 25 – 28, 2018.
Organizer of the workshop “The Hundred Years’ Crisis: Global Order in Historical Perspective” of the Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders”, Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften, Bad Homburg, Germany, July 6, 2018.
Organizer of and panelist at the panel “Changing Images of Germany in International Relations”, at the Annual Convention of the ISA, San Francisco, United States of America, April 4 – 7, 2018.
Co-organizer of the workshop “Huns, Prussians and Peaceniks: Changing Images of Germany in International Relations”, Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders”, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, July 8 – 9, 2016.
Co-organizer of the workshop “Jenseits der Anarchie: Weltordnungsentwürfe im frühen zwanzigsten Jahrhundert“ (Beyond Anarchy: World Order Proposals of the Early Twentieth Century), Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, July 12 – 13, 2013.
Organization of the panel “Interrupting Autocratic Rule in the MENA” at the 3rd Annual Graduate Conference “The Dynamics of Normative Orders: Persistence, Motion, Rupture” by the Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders”, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, November 18 – 20, 2010.
Organizer of the panel “New Liberalism and International Relations” at the 3rd Annual Graduate Conference “The Dynamics of Normative Orders: Persistence, Motion, Rupture” by the Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders”, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, November 18 – 20, 2010.
Conference and Workshop Activities
Discussant at the workshop „Democracy and Practices of Global Order“, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, July 14 – 15, 2022.
Holthaus, Leonie (2022): Towards the analysis of change in EU democracy promotion, paper presented at the 11th Biennial Conference of the ECPR Standing Group on the European Union, Luiss University, Rome, Italy, June 8 – 10, 2022.
Holthaus, Leonie and Wolff, Jonas (2022): Practices of Policy Orientation: A Study of the Heterogeneous Field of Democracy Promotion Research, paper presented at the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA), Nashville, United States of America, March 28 – April 2, 2022.
Holthaus, Leonie (2019): Revisiting the Origins of Democracy Assistance, paper presented at the Annual Convention of the ISA, Toronto, Canada, March 27 – 30, 2019.
Member of the roundtable “Leveraging Innovative Scholarship for Progressive Social Transformation II: From the World to Academia” at the Annual Convention of the ISA, Toronto, Canada, March 27 – 30, 2019.
Holthaus, Leonie (2018): Die Genese der pluralistischen Demokratiekonzeption und –kritik, paper presented at the Annual Convention of the German Political Science Association “The Frontiers of Democracy”, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, September 25 – 28, 2018.
Holthaus, Leonie (2018): The Evolution of Democracy Assistance in Historical Perspective, paper presented at the workshop “The Hundred Years' Crisis: Global Order in Historical Perspective” of the Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders”, Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften, Bad Homburg, Germany, July 6, 2018.
Holthaus, Leonie (2018): Was versprechen historische und praxistheoretische Ansätze für die Demokratieförderungsforschung? Paper presented at the workshop “International Democracy Promotion”, Research Network External Democracy Promotion, Lüneburg, Germany, June 29 – 30, 2018.
Steffek, Jens and Holthaus, Leonie (2017): The Social-Democratic Roots of Global Governance: From the Colonies to the United Nations, paper presented at the German Political Science Association, International Relations Conference, Bremen, Germany, October 4 – 6, 2017.
Holthaus, Leonie (2017): Perpetual Problems in International Relations: Recovering the Pluralist Perspective on Democracy and International Organization, paper presented at the 11th Pan-European Conference on International Relations, Barcelona, Spain, September 13 – 16, 2017.
Holthaus, Leonie and Steffek, Jens (2017): Theories and Ideological Trading Zones: Welfare Internationalism and the Social-Democratic Roots of Global Governance, paper presented at the workshop “Theory as Ideology”, 4th European Workshops in International Studies (EWIS), Cardiff, Wales, June 7 – 19, 2017.
Holthaus, Leonie (2016): The Liberal Internationalist Self and the Construction of a German Other at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, paper presented at the workshop “Huns, Prussians and Peaceniks: Changing Images of Germany in International Relations”, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, July 8 – 9, 2016.
Steffek, Jens and Holthaus, Leonie (2016): Welfare Internationalism as an Ideology of International Organizations, paper presented at the Annual Convention of the ISA, Atlanta, United States of America, March 16 – 19, 2016.
Holthaus, Leonie (2015): Left-liberal Reconsiderations of the Democratic Peace Thesis, paper presented at the workshop “Interwar International Theory”, Cambridge, United Kingdom, March 13 – 14, 2015.
Holthaus, Leonie (2013): World Socialism Restated. G.D.H. Cole and International Relations, paper presented at the Annual Convention of the ISA, San Francisco, United States of America, April 3 – 6, 2013.
Holthaus, Leonie (2012): L.T. Hobhouse and International Relations: Cosmopolitanism vs. Internationalism, paper presented at the workshop “Cosmopolitanism and International Relations Theories”, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, March 2 – 3, 2012.
Holthaus, Leonie and Steffek, Jens (2011): Planning, Development and the Functional Design of International Organizations, paper presented at the conference “Shifting Visions of Development: International Organizations, Non-Governmental Actors and the Rise of Global Governance, 1945-1990”, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, September 29 – 30, 2011.
Holthaus, Leonie (2010): The International Thought of L. T. Hobhouse, paper presented at the 3rd Annual Graduate Conference “The dynamics of normative orders: persistence, motion, rupture” by the Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders”, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, November 18 – 20, 2010.
Holthaus, Leonie (2010): Retelling the Origins of IR, paper presented at the ECPR General Conference, Reykjavik, Iceland, September 24 – 27, 2010.
Holthaus, Leonie (2010): Theories of Regional Cooperation and the Founding of the Gulf Cooperation Council: Gulf “Exceptionalism” Revisited, paper presented at the World Congress of Middle Eastern Studies, Barcelona, Spain, July 19 – 24, 2010.
Holthaus, Leonie (2009): Legitimacy of Regimes and Regional Cooperation in the Gulf Cooperation Council, paper presented at the International Congress of Contemporary Research on the Middle East, Bonn, Germany, October 8 – 10, 2009.
Holthaus, Leonie and Schrader, Kerstin (2009): Regimelegitimität und regionale Kooperation unter den arabischen Golfmonarchien, paper presented at the workshop “Autocratic Consolidation?”, University of Duisburg – Essen, Germany, May 14 – 15, 2009.

Semester summer 2022

02-03-0014-ps Internationale Beziehungen I A

Leonie Sophie Andrea Holthaus

Mo, 11. Apr. 2022 [16:15] – Mo, 11. Jul. 2022 [17:55] Proseminar

02-03-0162-se Quantitative und qualitative Methoden in den (Globalen) Internationalen Beziehungen

Leonie Sophie Andrea Holthaus

Mo, 11. Apr. 2022 [11:40] – Mo, 11. Jul. 2022 [13:20] Seminar

SoSe 2021

02-03-0015-ps Qualitative Methoden in den Internationalen Beziehungen

Mo, 12. Apr. 2021 [13:30] – Mo, 12. Jul. 2021 [15:10] Proseminar

02-03-0162-se Praxistheoretische Perspektiven in den Internationalen Beziehungen

Mo, 12. Apr. 2021 [11:40] – Mo, 12. Jul. 2021 [13:20]

WiSe 2020/21

02-03-0002-ps Einführung in die Politikwissenschaft C

Mi, 4. Nov. 2020 [11:40] – Mi, 10. Feb. 2021 [13:20]

Proseminar

02-03-0163-se Democracy promotion: Actors, objectives, critiques

Mi, 4. Nov. 2020 [15:20] – Mi, 10. Feb. 2021 [17:00]

Seminar

University of Potsdam SoSe 2020

Einführung in das wissenschaftliche Arbeiten sowie Selbstreflexion und Planung (BA, summer 2020)

Kritische Theorien der Internationalen Beziehungen (BA, summer 2020)

Qualitative Methoden in den Internationalen Beziehungen (MA, summer 2020)

Democracy promotion: Actors, objectives, critiques (MA, summer 2020)

Forschungskolloquium für MA-Studierende und Doktorandinnen (MA/PhD, summer 2020, with Prof. Dr. Liese)

WiSe 2019/20

03-0002-ps Einführung in die Politikwissenschaft C

Mi, 16. Okt. 2019 [11:40] – Mo, 17. Feb. 2020 [18:00]

02-03-0154-se Demokratieförderung und Wahlbeobachtung in Tunesien

Do, 24. Okt. 2019 [10:00] – Do, 24. Okt. 2019 [18:00]

SoSe 2019

02-03-0015-ps Internationale Beziehungen II: Einführung in die Demokratieförderung: Konzepte, Akteure, Instrumente

02-03-0048-se Kritische Theorien der Internationalen Beziehungen

WiSe 2018/19

02-03-0002-ps Einführung in die Politikwissenschaft C

02-03-0154-se Demokratieförderung und sozio-politische Inklusion in Tunesien

Philipps University of Marburg

Der Golfkooperationsrat (MA, winter 2010/11)

by arrangement

Publications