Welcome!

I am a political scientist and Head of the Department for Social Science Research and International Cooperation at BASE, the German Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management.

Previously, I have been a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich and WZB Berlin Social Science Center. I have also been a fellow in the Weatherhead Scholars Program at Harvard University. I received my PhD from the Graduate School of Decision Sciences at the University of Konstanz.

I am interested in subnational demands for autonomy and independence, as well as referendums as a tool in the pursuit of such demands. My ongoing work assesses the effect of economic crises on sovereignty referendums in Europe.  In my dissertation, I offer the first unifying theory of how symbolic territorial attachments affect the incidence, strategy choice and success of demands for self-determination on a global scale.

My work has been published in Comparative Political Studies, Nations and Nationalism, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, as well as Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft.

You can reach me via email at friederike.kelle[at]base.bund.de.

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Photo credit: Annette Koroll FOTOS