My research focuses on democratic theory, especially on citizenship and belonging as well as on new democratic practices in times of crisis. My main research question is whether changing political circumstances require new forms of inclusion, deliberation and representation.
In my new research project at the DFG-Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" in Münster, I analyze the Democratic Legitimacy of Religious Strategic Litigation. Religious groups increasingly take legal action to advance their agenda. I ask what role strategic litigation should play in a democracy and compare climate litigation and religious litigation. My first article on Strategic Litigation has just been published in the American Journal of Political Science (AJPS 2025).
My work on migration and belonging focuses on how decisions on borders and boundaries could be more democratic. I have developed the idea of “post-sovereign membership politics" in a new journal article (CRISPP 2024). In a new volume edited by Seyla Benhabib and Ayelet Shachar, my chapter analyzes refugee self-representation in shifting border politics (CUP forthcoming). This builds on the interdisciplinary research group on I co-lead on “Normative Challenges of the European Asylum System” in cooperation with philosophers, political theorists and legal scholars (2020-2024). My monograph "The Boundaries of the Demos" (Campus 2020) was awarded the Werner-von-Melle Dissertation Award 2018 . The central claim is that political communities do not have a right to decide unilaterally on their membership boundaries. Instead, new political institutions, such as Boundary Assemblies, are required in which members and non-members jointly decide on the boundaries of democratic communities.
Political crises and political regression challenge established understandings of democracy. I am interested in the idea of political regression (Constellations Ahlhaus/Niesen 2019, Leviathan Ahlhaus/Patberg 2023) and I discuss which democratic institutions and methods of political theory are adequate in times of crisis. I have recently co-organized an ECPR Joint Sessions Workshop on “Critical Methods” and I have published on methods of reconstructive critical theory (Philosophy and Social Criticism, 2022). I am interested in the role of public political theory for democratic debates.
My research on animal politics discusses how animals should be represented politically. Covering the rise of political parties for animal welfare and the institutionalization of new animal representatives, I have contributed to the political turn in animal rights theory (Mittelweg 36, 2013, Historical Social Research 2015, Oxford Handbook of Global Animal Law forth.) and discuss my work with politicians and citizens.