I am a Ph. D. candidate at the department of Media and Communication Studies at FU Berlin. I received my Master's degree in 2013 in Middle Eastern Studies (Arabistik) and Media and Communication Studies from the Leipzig University. My master's thesis, a feminist Critical Discourse Analysis, dealt with the transformation of gender relations in the United Arab Emirates. I have spent one Erasmus year in Paris (Sorbonne) and have received a scholarship from the ASA program for an internship with the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Ramallah (occupied Palestinian territory) for a qualitative research on the (destructive) consequences of international aid to the Palestinian civil society since the Oslo Peace process.

At the same time I have been occupied for over decade with communist/anarchist history, theory and practice, now focusing on the idea of councils (Räte) as approach to radical social transformation.

I have two children aged 5 and 1.

Thesis: Remembering anarchism in the Arab Spring in digital media. Omar Aziz and the Syrian local councils

My Ph. D. research deals with contemporary anarchism in Arab countries within the Arab Spring uprisings. I am currently focusing on Syria and the phenomenon of Local Councils (Majalis Mahalliyya) that had been spreading and functioning mainly from 2011-2013 and that are linked to anarchist intellectual Omar Aziz. My research is strongly motivated by making an academic contribution to remembering the more radical ambitions of libertarian, anarchist actors. In terms of media, I am researching how these radical left actors have been using digital media in order to disseminate their ideas, to examine their practice and theory across borders, and to remember their particular struggles. I am receiving a Ph. D. scholarship from Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.

Beyond my dissertation project I have been continuously fascinated with Karl Marx' works and have held several seminars on Capital Vol. 1 from an undogmatic, predominantly value-critical perpective (Wertkritik). At the same time I have been occupied for over decade with liberal communist/anarchist history, theory and practice, now focusing on the idea of Councils (Räte) as approach to radical social transformation. I have also intensively dealt with theories of the public sphere, especially Habermas and his critics including Negt's & Kluge's "Öffentlichkeit und Erfahrung".

2021: Nichts weniger als die Pariser Commune. Mit Beginn der Revolution
in Syrien gab es eine Rätebewegung im Land – auch jenseits von Rojava.
Analyse & Kritik Nr. 667, 19. Januar 2021.
https://www.akweb.de/ausgaben/667/nicht-nur-in-rojava-raetebewegung-im-aufstand-in-syrien/

2018: Self-Mediation Practices of Arab Anarchists. In C. Richter, A. Antonakis & C. Harders (Hrsg.). Digital Media and the Politics of Transformation in the Arab World and Asia. Wiesbaden: Springer.

2017: Rezension: Fuchs, Christian (2016): Reading Marx in the Information Age. A Media and Communication Studies Perspective on Capital Volume 1. Rezension erschienen in Global Media Journal July 2017.

2015: Conformism in the Emirati Press: The State-Media Discourse on the Workforce Integration of Emirati Women. In N.-C. Schneider & C. Richter (Hrsg.). New Media Configurations and socio-cultural dynamics in Asia and the Arab World. Baden-Baden, Abingdon: Nomos/Bloomsbury.

2015: Media Cities: Mediencluster als Mittel wirtschaftlicher Standortkonkurrenz. In C. Richter & A. El Difraoui (Hrsg.), Arabische Medien. Konstanz, München: UVK.

2014: Transformation der Geschlechterverhältnisse in den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten – Eine feministische Diskursanalyse der Arbeitsmarktintegration emiratischer Frauen. (Medien und politische Kommunikation - Naher Osten und Islamische Welt, Bd. 24). Berlin: Frank & Timme.

2011: (mit Mohamed Boukayeo) Die Nato in Libyen? Entgegnung auf Gilbert Achcar. Das Argument, 293, 494-500.

2011: Transformationsprojekt Hochschule! Pankower Vorträge: Reformalternative(n) heute - Kernelemente und Transformationsperspektive progressiver Reformpolitik in der BRD, 159.