News

We are hiring: two student assistants

With the Professorship for Politics and Governance in the European Union up and running at the University of Freiburg, we are looking for two student assistants to join the team, available as soon as possible and based on-site in Freiburg. The first position supports the ERC project INCONEX (10 hours per week, potentially up to 20): data collection and processing, parliamentary text analysis and qualitative content analysis, ideally with strong German and/or Spanish language skills and an interest in computational text analysis. The second supports the professorship in research and teaching (10 hours per week): EU politics and governance, particularly political representation, as well as EU economic and climate governance and crisis communication, for students with experience in qualitative and/or quantitative empirical research. Both positions are open to BA and MA students. Applications, as a single PDF with a CV and a transcript of records, go by e-mail: for the INCONEX position with the headline “Application INCONEX student assistant” to clint.claessen@politik.uni-freiburg.de, for the professorship position with the headline “Application student assistant Politics and Governance in the European Union” to christian.schwaderer@politik.uni-freiburg.de.

Application deadline: 22 October 2026. Full details and how to apply: both calls (PDF) · INCONEX position · professorship position

The INCONEX project has moved!

Since 1 October 2026, INCONEX is based at the University of Freiburg, where the Professorship for Politics and Governance in the European Union, held by Prof. Dr. Lucy Kinski, has officially started at the Seminar für Wissenschaftliche Politik. The offices at Belfortstraße 20 are freshly renovated and equipped, the team has arrived, and we cannot wait for everything that lies ahead.

We are not quite complete yet: two student assistants are being hired, one for the professorship and one for INCONEX. See the call for applications above.

Giving or Taking Voice

Lucy Kinski and Clint Claessen are guest editing a Special Issue of the open-access journal Politics and Governance (Cogitatio Press): “Giving or Taking Voice: Representative Claims and Group Appeals in the Public Sphere”. The issue brings together scholarship on how political and media actors draw attention to certain constituencies, claim to speak for them, or render them absent altogether by omitting, downplaying, or actively attacking them. Its core question is who speaks to, for, and about whom, and why this matters for understanding representation in contemporary democracies. Abstracts were submitted in September 2026; full papers are due in January 2027, and the issue is planned for the second half of 2027.

Special Issue at Politics and Governance →

Student Assistant wanted

The ERC-funded project INCONEX, led by Dr Lucy Kinski, sought a motivated student assistant to join the team at the University of Salzburg — supporting literature and data research, data processing, and content analysis (10 hours/week; BA/MA enrolment; very good German and/or Spanish).

Application deadline: 27 March 2026 — now closed.

Kick-off Workshop — Rethinking Representation Through Absence

The INCONEX kick-off workshop brought together leading experts to discuss representative claims, group appeals, and the crucial role of absence in representation. Held online on Friday, 12 December 2025, 13:45–17:45 CET.

Welcome to our new PhDs!

We were delighted to welcome two new PhD students, Anna-Lotta Dechow and Oscar Mendoza Hernandez, to the INCONEX team. Over the coming years, we will together investigate how citizens and interests become absent from democratic representation — whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Project team shares first results in Thessaloniki

At the ECPR General Conference 2025, Lucy Kinski and Clint Claessen presented two papers — on conceptualizing representative absence, and on using text-as-data methods to capture the presence and absence of social groups in parliamentary debates.

Read the full conference report →

Lucy Kinski elected to the Young Academy of the ÖAW

Lucy Kinski was elected as one of eight new members of the Young Academy of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), joining an interdisciplinary network of award-winning researchers under the age of 40. New members received their certificates from Academy President Dr Heinz Faßmann. Picture © ÖAW

ÖAW announcement →

“Sie deckt die blinden Flecken der Politik auf”

For International Women’s Day, the Salzburger Nachrichten portrayed two successful Salzburg researchers — one of them EU expert Lucy Kinski. Article by Stefan Veigl. Image © Stefan Veigl | SN

“Vier Frauen, vier Mal Exzellenz”

“In the political process certain groups are represented, while others are made absent — consciously or unconsciously,” explains Kinski. “Absence is at the core of the current crisis of modern democracies.” Article by Theresa Steffner.

Lucy Kinski receives an ERC Starting Grant

Dr Lucy Kinski, of the Salzburg Centre of European Union Studies (SCEUS) and the Department of Political Science at PLUS, was awarded a €1.5 million ERC Starting Grant over five years for her research on the politics of absence.

Read on the PLUS website →