Dear friends and colleagues of the Kolleg-Forschergruppe,

Welcome to our latest newsletter edition!

Since the winter term has now come to an end, we would like to take the opportunity to present you past KFG events. At the same time, we are looking forward to a full agenda for spring and summer.

In December, the two-day conference “Re-Reading Risse” brought together a number of distinguished scholars who discussed Thomas Risses wide-ranging contributions to the field of political science and international relations – and celebrated his 60^th birthday. In January, on the occasion of winning a prestigious research grant of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, KFG Senior Fellow Jeffrey T. Checkel talked about the “The Social Dynamics of Civil War” at the Humboldt Lecture 2016. At the KFG, workshops on Process Tracing and Text Analysis, organized by KFG fellows Sören Stapel, Stefano Palestini, and Jeff Checkel, were held with great success.

We are delighted to announce that the Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism (co-edited by Tanja A. Börzel and Thomas Risse) has finally been published. In March, the handbook will officially be launched at the KFG Reception at the International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Conference 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. The accompanying roadshow continues in April in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The next stop of the roadshow is planned for November in Pretoria, South Africa.

Lastly, we would like to draw your attention to several new issues of the Working Paper Series, written by scholars affiliated with the KFG.

We wish you a relaxing term break and an inspiring summer term 2016.

Warm regards,

Tanja A. Börzel, Thomas Risse & the KFG-Team