About
Short Bio
Dr. Jan Wilkens studied History, Culture and Languages of the Near and Middle East and Political Science (BA) at the University of Hamburg, Arabic at the Higher Language Institute in Damascus, Syria and Middle East Politics (M.Sc.) at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He earned his PhD in International Relations from the University of Hamburg, where he also works as a PostDoc at the Chair of Political Science, especially Global Governance and in the Cluster of Excellence “Climate, Climatic Change, and Society” (CLICCS). His publications include Lifting the Veil? Critical Norms Research, Freedom and Equality in the Context of the »Arab Spring« (in German) (2014) with Maren Hofius, Hannes Hansen-Magnusson and Sassan Gholiagha in the Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen and Contention and Constitutionalization in the Global Realm: Assessing the Uprisings in West Asia and North Africa and Their Impact On International Politics, in: Fawaz Gerges (ed.)(2015): Contentious Politics in the Middle East: Popular Resistance and Marginalised Activism beyond the Arab Uprisings. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan and Postcolonialism in International Relations", in: Renée Marlin-Bennett Ed., Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Academic Career
- Since 07/2019: PostDoc Team Global Governance & Cluster of Excellence “Climate, Climatic Change, and Society” (CLICCS) Project B2 - Dynamics of Climate Governance: Norms, Contestation, and Policies
- 10/2013 – 06/2019: Lecturer and researcher at the Chair of Political Science, esp. Global Governance
- 12/2012 – 04/2015: Researcher and coordinator in the project Constitutionalism Unbound
- 02/2011 – 07/2011: Research Assistant at GIGA, Hamburg
- 10/2009 – 08/2010: Teaching Assistant „Introduction to Political Science“, University of Hamburg
- 01/2009 – 03/2009: Assistant in the „Neirab Rehabilitation Project“ UNRWA, Aleppo, Syria
Academic Graduations & Qualifications
- 10/2018 - PhD in Political Science, International Relations "Translocal activism and the Syrian struggle in global politics" (Referees Prof. Antje Wiener, FAcSS, Prof. Fawaz Gerges & Prof. Dr. Klaus Schlichte) summa cum laude
- 09/2012 - Master of Science in 'Middle East Politics', School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London
- 09/2011 - Bachelor of Arts in History, Culture and languages of the Near and Middle East and Political Science, University of Hamburg
- 02/2011 - Higher Language Institute, University of Damascus
Conferences and Presentations (active participation)
- Centre for Syrian Studies "4th International Conference on Syria", University of St. Andrews, August 1-4, 2018.
Paper "Translocal activism and the Syrian struggle in global politics" (Conference website). - BRISMES Conference 2018 "New Approaches to Studying the Middle East". King's College London, June 25-28, 2018. Panel organisation "West Asia and North Africa in Global International Relations: Advancing Methodologies and Concepts" (conference programm)
- Workshop "The World at the Door: When the Local and Everyday are International". London School of Economics, November 3, 2017: A Structurationist Reading of Narratives: Exploring the Local Construction of Global Politics (Workshop Programm)
- 5th Open Sessions of the Section "International Politics" (DVPW). Universität Bremen, October 4-6, 2017: Translocal activism and the Syrian struggle in global politics – A reflexive research approach to agency in International Relations (Link zum Programm)
- 4th European Workshops in International Studies (EWIS). Cardiff University/Wales, June 7-10, 2017. Workshop "Recovering the Middle East in/from International Relation".
- Workshop on images and online narratives in international relations, University of Oxford. Oxford, January 20, 2017: From Trump to Daesh - The End of Taken For Grantedness and the digital production of narratives (Link to programme).
- 10th ECPR General Conference, Charles University. Prague, September 7-10, 2016: Constructivist Theory and Global Constitutionalism (Link to paper at ECPR homepage).
- Migration and the Conflict Cycle. GIGA, IFSH, Universität Siegen, Istanbul Policy Center. Hamburg, April 28-29, 2016.
- British International Studies Association (BISA)@40 workshop. London, June 16-19, 2015. Impunity, Security and the Colonial Frontier as member of the Colonial / Postcolonial / De-Colonial Working Group. Read my workshop report on the CPD website.
- 4th Open Sessions of the Section "International Politics" (DVPW). Magdeburg, September 25-27, 2014: Lifting the Veil? Critical Norms Research, Freedom and Equality in the Context of the "Arab Spring"
- 4th Annual Graduate Conference of the Cluster of Excellence "The Formation of Normative Orders" - Practices of Critique. Frankfurt/Main, December, 5-7, 2013: Practices of contention as a moment of constitutionalisation in the global realm? Investigating the meaning of the "Arab uprisings" for international relations
- LSE Middle East Centre PhD Conference ‘Contentious Politics in the Middle East’. London, September 30, 2013: "Transnational Practices of Contention – Protest Movements in the ‘Arab Spring’ and the challenge for social movement and international relations theories"
- 8th Pan-European Conference on International Relations. Warsaw, September, 18-21, 2013: "Islam" and the problem of grand narratives in IR theory - Between meta-theories and meaning in context"
Invited talks
- Universality as (post-)colonial practice: The meaning of a historical concept for contemporary politics in West Asia and North Africa. 7th UN-Research Colloquium DGVN "Postcolonial Perspectives on the United Nations", Mach 11, 2017.
- A meaningful world among others’- contending narrations of legitimate orders. Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, November 23, 2016 with Antje Wiener.
- Extra-territorial activism and the transnational construction of the state. Socio-Legal Discussion Group, University of Oxford, November 24, 2016.
Awards
- Research Grant by the Übersee-Club Hamburg (2017)
Conference, Workshop and Public event Organization
- Chair EWIS workshop "Nature and Political Order(s): Exploring Environmental Politics, Climate Futures, and Decarbonisation in the Middle East” together with Cemal Burak Tansel. (CfP).
- Co-Organizer workshop "Die 'Politics of Scale' in der deutschen Politikwissenschaft" together with André Bank, Riccarda Flemmer, Regina Heller, Maren Hofius, Hanna Pfeifer und Jan Wilkens. Programme of the Workshop. Several contributions, including the introduction are published on the German Political Science Association Blog (Link to Blog).
- Organizer of the public lecture series "European Crisis in Global Perspective: Local Changes and Global Developments". More information on the events, including videos of the lectures are available online (Information and Videos of the lecture series).
- Organizer of the public event "Iran after the nuclear deal: Between change and challenges"Der Iran nach dem Nuklearabkommen: Zwischen Wandel und Herausforderungen?" in cooperation with the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (More information about the event).
Memberships
- German Political Science Association (Deutsche Vereinigung für Politische Wissenschaft) (DVPW), Section "International Relations"
- Since 10/2020 Co-Speaker German Political Science Association “IR-Norms Research” (since 2020)
- British International Studies Association (BISA), The Colonial / Postcolonial / Decolonial Working Group
- European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR)
- European International Studies Association (EISA)
- German Middle East Studies Association for Contemporary Research and Documentation (DAVO)
- International Studies Association (ISA)