Ich bin vom 15.4.2026-30.11.2026 im Sonderurlaub

• Während dieser Zeit arbeite ich als Vertretungsprofessorin für Internationale Beziehungen an der Universität Potsdam
• Ich werde keine Lehr- und Betreuungstätigkeiten an der UHH übernehmen

Forschungsinteressen

• (EU) Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik, Diplomatie
• Informelle Governance
• Politik der Expertise und Wissensproduktion
• Russlands Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine

• Internationale Politische Soziologie
• Konstructivistische Normenforschung
• Internationale Praxistheorie
• Kritische Grenzstudien
• Interpretative Methodologie and Narratologie

Kurzbiografie auf Englisch

Wintersemester 2025/26

• 24-101.11 Einführung in die Politikwissenschaft (A), Mo 14:15-15:45
• 24-108.12 The Theory and Practice of Diplomacy (Vertiefungsseminar), Do 12:15-13:45
• 24-109.12 Digital Qualitative Methods in International Relations (1), (Projektseminar), Do 16:15-17:45 

Sommersemester 2025

• 24-104.21 Konstruktivismus in den IB (Lektürekurs) Di 12:15-13:45
• 24-108.23 Researching Micro Moves in IR (BA, Seminar, auf Englisch) Do 12:15-13:45

Wintersemester 2024/25

• 24-109.11 Normenforschung in den IB (1) (BA, Seminar, auf Deutsch) Di 12:15-13:45 Uhr
• 24-201.12 Grundlagen der Internationalen Politischen Theorie (IPT) (MA, Vorlesung, auf Deutsch/Englisch) Mi 12:15-13:45 Uhr
• 24-210.31 Betreutes Selbststudium mit Kolloquium (FM IPT)

Sommersemester 2024

• 24-104.21 Konstruktivismus in den IB (Lektürekurs) Di 10:15-11:45
• 24-203.21 The Practice Turn in IR (BA, Seminar, auf Englisch) Do 12:15-13:45

Wintersemester 2023/24

• 24-101.12 Einführung in die Politikwissenschaft (B), Di 10:15-11:45
• 24-108.12 The 'Practice Turn' in International Relations (Vertiefungsseminar), Do 12:15-13:45

Sommersemester 2023

• 24-100.21 Feministische Außenpolitik (Ringvorlesung) Mi 18:15-19:45
• 24-104.22 Der neue Konstruktivismus in den IB (Lektürekurs) Di 12:15-13:45
• 24-106.23 The Practice of Diplomacy (BA, Seminar, auf Englisch) Do 10:15-11:45

Wintersemester 2022/23

• 24-101.13 Einführung in die Politikwissenschaft (C), Di 12:15-13:45
• 24-601.11 Einführung in die Politikwissenschaft (Grundkurs A), Do 12:15-13:45
• 24-601.16 Einführung in die Politikwissenschaft (Grundkurs F), Do 14:15-15:45

Sommersemester 2022

• 24-104.24 Konstruktivismus in den Internationalen Beziehungen - Eine Einführung (BA, Seminar) Di 12:15-13:45
• 24-106.24 Global Arctic (BA, Seminar, auf Englisch) Do 08:15-09:45
• 24-116.22 Konstruktivismus in den Internationalen Beziehungen (BA, Seminar) Di 16:15-17:45

Wintersemester 2021/22

• 24-105.16 Contemporary Debates in European Integration Theory (BA, Seminar, auf Englisch) Mo 14:15-15:45
• 24-106.12 The Practice of Diplomacy (BA, Seminar, auf Englisch) Di 16:15-17:45

Sommersemester 2021

• 24-104.21 Konstruktivismus in den Internationalen Beziehungen (BA, Seminar) Di 14:15-15:45
• 24-106.23 'Global Arctic' - The Arctic in Global Politics (BA, Seminar, auf Englisch) Do 12:15-13:45
• 24-108.23 The 'Practice Turn' in International Relations (BA, Seminar, auf Englisch) Mo 12:15-13:45

Wintersemester 2019/20

• 24-105.16 Contemporary Debates in European Integration Theory (BA, Seminar, auf Englisch) Mi 10:15-13:45

Sommersemester 2019

• 24-104.21 Konstruktivismus in den Internationalen Beziehungen (BA, Seminar) Mi 12:15-13:45
• 24-106.24 The "Practice Turn" in International Relations (BA, Seminar, auf Englisch) Do 10:15-11:45

Wintersemester 2018/19

• 24-206.12 Research Design in International Relations (MA, Seminar, auf Englisch) Do 10:15-11:45
• Social Science Concepts and Methods (Graduate School, Blockseminar, auf Englisch, zusammen mit Prof. Dr. Antje Wiener)

Sommersemester 2018

• 24-104.23 Konstruktivismus in den Internationalen Beziehungen (BA, Lektürekurs) Do 10:15-11:45
• 24-106.22 Identity, Border, Order (BA, Seminar) Mi 12:15-13:45

Wintersemester 2017/18

• 24-108.12 Die EU in der Krise? Akteure, Institutionen, Prozesse (Seminar) Do 10:15-11:45
• 24-210.31k Globale Konstitutionalisierung (Kolloquium, zusammen mit Prof. Dr. Peter Niesen) Mo 10:15-11:45

Sommersemester 2017

• 24-106.23 Interpretive Research Methods for International Relations (Seminar, auf Englisch) Di 12:15-13:45
• 24-210.21 Globale Konstitutionalisierung (Seminar, zusammen mit Prof. Dr. Peter Niesen) Mo 10:15-11:45

Wintersemester 2016/17

• 24-108.14 European Integration Theory in Times of Crisis (BA, Vertiefungsseminar, auf Englisch) Di 12:15-13:45

Wintersemester 2015/16

• 24-206.12 Interpretive Research Methods in Internatioal Relations [IB-Theorie] (MA, Seminar, auf Englisch, zusammen mit Philip Liste) Do 16:15-19:45

DiploCare (ongoing, together with Chiara de Franco, University of Southern Denmark, Odense)

• This project seeks to analyse care practices by field diplomats during crisis diplomacy.
  As part of a workshop project on care in diplomacy, it is funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfonds.

Special Issue Project on "Protracted Crises"

• In my contribution, I zoom in on the German MFA's evacuation practices in the wake of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in 2021, investigating the impact frictions between capital-based and Kabul-based diplomats had on the dynamics of evacuating diplomatic personnel, German citizens, and Afghans at risk, incl. local staff.

"International Expert Forum on Ukraine" Conference (ForUA)

• Kick-off event for an annually held Forum that observes and assesses the EU accession process of Ukraine.
• For more information on the programme of the first ForUA, see here.
• For a video recording of the first ForUA see here.

Special Issue Project "Boundary work and the (un)making of global cooperation" in International Affairs (completed)

• Abstract: While borders are on the rise in both political practice and academic research, more mundane practices of boundary work continue to make, remake and unmake transnational knowledges, spaces and identities. In this special section, we argue that global politics unfolds through boundary work, an understudied but highly effective set of ordering practices that shape the conditions for and dynamics of global (non-)cooperation. We leverage recent innovations in the study of boundary work in other fields to transcend the conventional portrayal of boundaries as instruments of exclusion and competition. Instead, we equally attend to their potential to facilitate inclusion and cooperation between otherwise differently positioned actors. Building on this conceptual foundation, the contributions to this collection offer novel, empirically grounded insights into diverse types of boundary work (competitive, collaborative, configurational) across several important transnational domains and institutional sites. These insights will be of particular relevance to practitioners of global politics, who regularly confront boundaries. Overall, we encourage scholars of International Relations (IR) to pay more attention to the constitutive effects and dynamics of boundary work in global politics.
• See the full special issue here.

Special Issue Project "Communities of Practice: Advancing a Research Agenda" in Global Studies Quarterly (completed 2024)

Related publications:

• Adler, Emanuel, Bremberg, Niklas, Sondarjee, Maika (2024) Communities of Practice in World Politics: Advancing a Research Agenda, Global Studies Quarterly, 4(1), ksad070, (DOI).
• Bueger, Christian, Hofius, Maren and Edwards, Scott (2024) Global Ordering and the Interaction of Communities of Practice: A Framework for Analysis, Global Studies Quarterly, 4(1), ksad079, (DOI).

Feminist Foreign Policy Lecture Series (completed 2023)

• Lecture Series during the summer semester of 2023, organised together with Jannis Kappelmann (UHH), IFSH and HSU, Hamburg. Follow the link for video catalogue.

Book Project "European Union Communities of Practice: European Union Communities of Practice Diplomacy and Boundary Work in Ukraine" (completed 2022)

This book provides a practice-based analysis of European Union (EU) diplomacy and community-building.
Unlike studies focusing on how EU community-building proceeds centrally in Brussels, this book turns to EU diplomacy in its bordering state of Ukraine. At a time when the EU’s internal cohesion is being put to the test, this book provides novel insights into how feelings of belonging are produced amongst its members in the absence of a homogenous ‘we’. Transcending the traditional dichotomy between macro-structures and micro-processes of interaction, the book demonstrates that the EU’s large-scale community depends for its existence on practical instantiations of community-building in distinct ‘communities of practice’. Using the case of an EU diplomatic ‘community of practice’ in Kyiv, Ukraine, takes these questions to the EU’s margins, highlighting that the boundaries of community are key sites in which community materialises. The in-depth case study identifies diplomats’ ‘boundary work’ as the constitutive rule that makes the local ‘community of practice’ cohere and create feelings of belonging to the large-scale polity of the EU.
This book will be of interest to researchers of European studies, as well as to those working on global cooperation and international relations more broadly.

From Arctic Exceptionalism to Global Arctic: Exploring Pathways of Cooperation in Circumpolar Arctic Governance (Senior Fellowship Project at Käte Hamburger Kolleg/CGR21, 4/2020-3/2021)

With sea ice thinning and new possibilities for trade routes opening up, the Arctic is undergoing sustained changes, fuelling neo-realist visions of conflict and future competition over resources among Arctic and non-Arctic states. Despite these nightmarish imaginaries, Arctic governance continues to be largely cooperative rather than conflictual. In fact, it is considered a laboratory for studying global governance processes that are characterised by a plurality of stakeholders. Hence, the newly emerging narrative of the 'Global Arctic' is gaining ever more traction. Yet, how is this possible in light of this increasingly contested governance space?To solve this puzzle, the project zooms in on the Arctic Council as the primary intergovernmental policy forum that structures Circumpolar Governance and identifies those processes and mechanisms that bring about cooperation rather than conflict in the Arctic Council. Through the lens of practice theory and critical border studies, it proposes that the Arctic Council fosters sustainable governance pathways through the ‘boundary work’ practiced by its multiple epistemic communities. As a ‘boundary organisation’, then, it has the ability to translate between multiple social worlds, and thus to span the boundaries of different knowledge regimes that range from state-centric forms of knowledge production over Western-centric scientific expertise to more traditional indigenous forms of knowledge.Over time, said boundary work of the Arctic Council’s diverse epistemic communities brings about regimes of mutual accountability and organising principles that are vital for solving potential disputes peacefully and cooperatively – rather than through confrontation and (threats of) military build-up. The focus on the Arctic Council’s boundary work promises to provide new insights into how global governance institutions can develop sustainable pathways of global cooperation in the face of increasingly pluralistic policy settings.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Dissertation "Constituting Community, Practising Boundaries: European Union Diplomacy in Ukraine" (completed 2015)

The project contends that the concept of ‘community’ can be analytically captured through boundary encounters of individuals in 'communities of practice'. For the purpose of validating this argument, the project investigates how the European Union (EU) as a macro-social ‘community of values’ is (re)produced by way of EUropean diplomatic missions at its borders, that is in its neighbouring state Ukraine. As a community-creating device then, practice among diplomats from both the EU’s member states as well as from the European External Action Service (EEAS) is examined as to learn whether and, if so, how they come to ‘represent’ the EU’s macro-community.

Taking Ukraine as the site of struggle for the constitution of the EU’s community is chosen as to highlight the role of the ‘border’ in enhancing the EU diplomats’ awareness for ‘their’ community. For Ukraine as the borderland is considered the space where ‘the inside’ is reproduced on ‘the outside’ vis-à-vis a perceived ‘other’. An analysis of interviews conducted with senior EU diplomats posted in Kyiv, Ukraine, will support my argument about how the ‘European community of values’ is given meaning by the practices of its diplomatic representatives.

Field Work Activities during PhD

• June 2014: final round of interviews with senior EU and EU-member state diplomats in Kyiv, Ukraine.
• Aug-Oct 2012: I did a two-month long field trip to Kyiv, Ukraine, to conduct interviews with senior EU and EU-member state diplomats
• Nov-Dec 2012: I was a visiting PhD fellow at CEURUS, University of Tartu, Estonia. This research was supported by the European Social Fund’s Doctoral Studies and Internationalisation Programme DoRa.
   

Monografien

• Hofius, Maren (2023) European Union Communities of Practice: Diplomacy and Boundary Work in Ukraine. London: Routledge (DOI).
  • siehe die Rezension von Emanuel Adler in International Affairs 99(6), November 2023, 2532–2534 (DOI).

Artikel in begutachteten Zeitschriften

• De Franco, Chiara und Hofius, Maren (2026) Care as frontline diplomatic practice. Beitrag im Forum zu "Gender, Race, Colonialism and International Practice Theory", Cooperation and Conflict (DOI).
• Hofius, Maren (2025) A Feminist-Pragmatist Extension of Jason Ralph’s “On Global Learning”. Journal of International Political Theory, Forum on Jason Ralph's (2023) "On Global Learning" (DOI).
• Hofius, Maren und Kranke, Matthias (2025) Boundary work and the (un)making of global cooperation: mapping the terrain, International Affairs, Mai 2025 (DOI).
• Hofius, Maren (2024) „All these theories yet the bodies keep piling up“: Zur Soziologie der IB-Disziplin im Lichte des Russischen Angriffskriegs gegen die Ukraine, Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen, 30(2) (DOI).
• Hofius, Maren (2024) On Global Learning: Pragmatic Constructivism, International Practice and the Challenge of Global Governance (Buchrezension), International Affairs, 2, March 2024 (DOI).
• Bueger, Christian, Hofius, Maren, und Edwards, Scott (2024) Global Ordering and the Interaction of Communities of Practice: A Framework for Analysis. Global Studies Quarterly, 4(1), ksad079 (DOI).
• Hofius, Maren (2023) Diplomats at the Frontlines: Knowing and Ordering in Crisis. The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, 18(1), 1-34 (DOI).
• Hofius, Maren (2020) Towards a ‘Theory of the Gap’: Addressing the Relationship between Practice and Theory. Global Constitutionalism, 9(1), 169-182 (DOI).
• Hofius, Maren (2016) Community at the border or the boundaries of community? The case of EU field diplomats. Review of International Studies, 42(5), 939-967 (DOI).
  • Preis für den 2017 'BISA Best Article in Review of International Studies' (Link).
• Hofius, Maren, Wilkens, Jan, Hansen-Magnusson, Hannes, und Gholiagha, Sassan (2014) Den Schleier lichten? Kritische Normenforschung, Freiheit und Gleichberechtigung im Kontext des »Arabischen Frühlings«. Eine Replik auf Engelkamp/Glaab/Renner, Ulbert und Deitelhoff/Zimmermann. Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen, 2, 85-105 (DOI).

Kapitel in begutachteten Sammelbänden

• Hofius, Maren (2026) Practice-Based Ethics in International Relations Theory. In: Ackerly, Brooke et al. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Grounded and Engaged Normative Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press (DOI).
• Hofius, Maren (2025) On the Practice Dimension of Norms: The Constructivist Promise Revisited. In: Gholiagha, Sassan, Orchard, Phil and Antje Wiener (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Norms Research in International Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press (DOI).
• Hofius, Maren (2021) Practice Approaches in International Political Theory. In: Paipais V (ed) Perspectives on International Political Theory in Europe. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 87-106 (link).
• Gholiagha, Sassan, Hansen-Magnusson, Hannes, Hofius, Maren (2021) Meaning-in-use: Zum Verhältnis von Normativität und Normalität in der Normenforschung. In: Katharina Glaab, Antonia Graf und Stephan Engelkamp (eds) Kritische Normenforschung in den Internationalen Beziehungen. Neue Wege & metatheoretische Perspektiven. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 223-251 (DOI).
• Hofius, Maren (2021) Maren Hofius über Olaf Asbach: Europa. Vom Mythos zur Imagined Community. In: Niesen P and Weiß D (eds) 100 Jahre Politikwissenschaft in Hamburg: Bruchstücke zu einer Institutsgeschichte, Bielefeld: transcript, 211–216 [in German].
• Hofius, Maren (2021) The personal is always political: Interview mit Maren Hofius. In: Niesen P and Weiß D (eds) 100 Jahre Politikwissenschaft in Hamburg: Bruchstücke zu einer Institutsgeschichte, Bielefeld: transcript, 350–355 [in German].

Andere

• Hofius Maren (2020) From Global Commons to Global Arctic. Global Cooperation Research - A Quarterly Magazine, 2(3), 7-10. Duisburg: Centre for Global Cooperation Research (link).
• Hofius Maren (2019) ‘Als Frau in der Wissenschaft bin ich doppelt benachteiligt‘ – Ein Interview mit Maren Hofius. "Politik100x100" blog (link).
• Hofius, Maren (2019) Rezenzion von Olaf Asbachs "Europa - Vom Mythos zur Imagined Community?" (2011) auf Politik100x100, dem Blog der Politikwissenschaft, Universität Hamburg (link).
• Gastkommentar zs. mit Thomas Linsenmaier in der estnischen Tageszeitung Eesti Päevaleht zur EU Politik in der 'Ukrainekrise', erschienen am 27.3.2014.