Fellows transitioning to the postdoc phase 2012/2013

Current project
Multilateralism in Russian Foreign Policy: Genuine Search for Partners or Camouflage for Unilateral Ambitions?

Research foci
International relations; European and Eurasian security policy; international security organizations; energy policy; foreign policy in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine; European Neighborhood Policy; democratization.

Currently studies on the United States' behavior in international governmental organizations (IGOs) dominate and IGOs increasingly conduct studies on the EU and even on China. Thus, Russia’s role in organizations concerned with security remains largely opaque, in particular its goals, methods, and impact. This project aims to elucidate the effectiveness of Russia's multi-lateralism and its patterns of exploiting various IGOs for its own purposes.

Academic background

Elena Kropatcheva received her master's degree in philology and literature in 2001 from Udmurt State University in Russia. In 2002 she completed the post graduate program in international relations and European studies at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. In 2003 she completed the master's program in peace and security studies at the IFSH in Hamburg. Ever since she has worked as a research assistant at IFSH/CORE. In 2009 she successfully completed her dissertation titled: Russian Foreign Policy Towards the Ukraine Against the Backdrop of Russian and Western Competition. Elena Kropatcheva is a member of the German-Russian Society in Hamburg, the BISA Working Group on Russian and European Security and BASEES - British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies.

Mentor: Prof. Dr. Michael Brzoska

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Current project
Investigating iron deficiency in peas and purifying ferric chelate reductase yielded from yeast and subject to over-experimentation in order to characterize and prepare structural analyses.

Research foci

This project investigates iron deficiency in the leguminous pea. Preliminary work showed different reactions of pea cultivars on iron-deficiency. We compare time courses of the expression of FRO1 and other crucial iron-related genes in pea cultivars, which differ in their responsiveness to iron deficiency, both on the RNA and protein levels. Endogenous concentrations of iron in different lines will be analyzed. We will also use heterologous expression for a PsFRO1-His-taq construct in yeast, which is followed by affinity purification of the PsFRO1 protein. The purified PsFRO1 will be biochemically characterized and later used for structural analysis. Main subject of research is abiotic and biotic stress in plants with a focus on plasma membrane proteins, as well as development and enhancement of protocols for membrane protein separation. Methods of choice range from typical protein biochemistry (chromatography, ELISA etc.), proteomics (DIGE, LC-MS etc.) and molecular biology (qPCR, expression systems etc).

Academic background
2002-2007	Biology student at Universität Hamburg
2008	Diplom in biology from Universität Hamburg
2008-2009	STSM-project (3 months) in Luxembourg, CRP - Gabriel Lippmann, financed by the COST FA0603, Dr. Jenny Renaut
2009-2012	PhD project funded with a grant from Universität Hamburg
2009	German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) project with Dr. Anna Kärkönen, Finland, University of Helsinki – Applied Botany
2011	Member of the International Plant Proteomics Society (INPPO)
2012	PhD in biology; doctoral dissertation: Effect of iron-deficiency and elicitation on the plasma membrane proteome and biochemical characterization of the pea (Pisum sativum MILL.) iron reductase FRO1 - Applied and technical work on gel-based plant membrane proteomics.

Mentor: PD Dr. Sabine Lüthje

More information about Dr. Meisrimler

Current project
The discursive production of sustainable mobility using electric bicycles as an exampleDie diskursive Erzeugung nachhaltiger Mobilität am Beispiel des Elektrofahrradfahrens

Research foci
Athletic, cultural and practical sociology

Academic background
From 2000 to 2006 I completed a teaching degree in sports science, business and employment studies at the University of Bremen and spent one semester in France. From 2007 to 2011 I received doctoral funding from Evangelisches Studienwerk e. V. Villigst. I received my doctoral degree in 2012 and am currently working as an adjunct professor for the Graduate Center University of Bremen (PROUB) advising international doctoral candidates.

Mentor: Prof. Dr. Ingrid Bähr

More information about Dr. Renout

Current project

The self-representation of headscarf-wearing muslim women in social networks and their influence on the significance of headscarves in Germany

Research foci

This project largely focuses on the discourse created by headscarf-wearing women in message boards. It also investigates the status and emancipation of muslim women who choose to wear headscarves. Further areas of interest include discourse studies and sociolinguistics, visual semiotics, multilingualism, the emancipation of muslim women in Germany as well as islamic feminism and media studies, e.g. feminine images in the visual media.

Academic background

Reyhan Şahin studied general linguistics, German literature and education at the University of Bremen. In February 2012 she received her doctoral degree in linguistics on the significance of the muslim headscarf in Germany. As part of her doctoral project, she conducted the first qualitative study on dress and religion among young headscarf-wearing muslim women in Germany based on a linguistic, semiotic approach. Since June 2012 she has been a postdoc in Universität Hamburg’s Young Researchers Initiative and a member of the Research Center for Media and Communication (RCMC). Her new project investigates the self-representation and daily practices of headscarf-wearing young muslims.

Mentor: Prof. Dr. Jannis K. Androutsopoulos

More information about Dr. Sahin

Current project
Protein engineering of the O-GlcNAc transferase and of cell proteins to simplify the investigation of the role of O-GicNAc modifcations of intercellular proteins

Reserach foci Post-translational glycosylation plays a fundamental role in cellular communication and recognition processes. The structures of this molecules are synthesized by glycosyltransferases and a few glycosylhydrolases. Glycosyltransferase inhibitors are an important tool for understanding mechanistic details of the catalyzed reaction and the role of these enzymes in the synthesis of specific glycan structures. I am interested in the development of inhibitors of human blood group B galactosyltransferases to establish easy access to glycosyltransferase inhibitors in general.

Academic background
Since 01.2012	Research Assistant in Prof. Dr. Bernd Meyer's research group
06.2008–11.2011	PhD thesis: Design, Synthesis and Analysis of Inhibitors of Human Blood Group B galactosyltransferase
10.2001–03.2008	Chemistry student at Universität Hamburg

Mentor: Prof. Dr. Bernd Meyer

More information about Dr. Schaefer

Current project

Overall freedom measurement

Research foci
My research interests are in contemporary moral and political philosophy. I am particularly interested in the concept of freedom and its place – as one of the distribuenda – within liberal theories of distributive justice. My research to date has focused mainly on the question of what it means exactly to be free (and not free) to act in a specific way. My current research is concerned with the issue of measuring overall degrees of freedom.

Academic background

2005-2011	PhD in Political Philosophy, Nuffield College, University of Oxford
2000-2004	MA in philosophy, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
1996-1999	BA in Political Science and Philosophy, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Last year I was a visiting Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute. During my M.A. studies in Jerusalem I was also working as a researcher for B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.

Mentor: Prof. Dr. Thomas Schramme

More information about Dr. Shnayderman

Current project

The veneration of St. Catherine of Alexandria in German-speaking Europe in the later Middle Ages.
I am interested in the musical veneration of St. Catherine and the spread of Offices for this saint in relation to the spread of her cult throughout German-speaking Europe.

Research foci

Manuscipts, paleography, medieval song, liturgy, and saints.

Academic background

• Musicology, BMus, Northwestern University,
  
• Medieval Studies, MA, University of Toronto,
  
• PhD, Cambridge University, 2012, Musical Notation in Bamberg 1007-1300.

Mentor: Prof. Dr. Oliver Huck

More information about Dr. Wendling

Current project

Genre transformations in film, series and computer games - an investigation into the relationship between media aesthetics and media culture in the 21st century.

Research foci

Cognitive film theory; space theory; genre theory; transformation processes in media aesthetics and media culture; object-oriented media studies with a focus on cultural and philosophical issues.

Academic background

2011	Doctorate from the University of Bremen; doctoral thesis: Hybrid Rooms: Film Worlds in Hollywood Movies at the Turn of the Century
2009–2011	Associate of the doctoral student group The Textuality of Film at the University of Bremen
2008–2011	Doctoral grant from the University of Bremen
	Cultural studies, German literature, philosophy and physics at the University of Bremen and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
	Member of the Bremen Institute for Transmedial Textuality Research (BITT), University of Bremen, and of the Society for Media Studies (Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft, GfM)

Mentor: Prof. Dr. Thomas Weber

More information about Dr. Schmidt