welcome

Hi! I am Berenike Firestone, a political and comparative-historical sociologist. I am currently a PhD candidate at Columbia University in New York City and a research associate at the Hertie School in Berlin. From June 2024 onwards, I will be a postdoctoral fellow with the Transformations of Democracy research department at the Berlin Social Science Center, led by Professor Daniel Ziblatt.

Broadly, my research is about far-right politics and support for pluralistic democracy, and the ways in which history and memory shape both of those things. 

I use a variety of methods, including experiments, statistical analysis of observational data, and in-depth qualitative analysis of archival data. 

For an example of my work, please see a recent publication in PNAS on commemoration and far-right support, co-authored with Oguzhan Turkoglu and Ruth Ditlmann.