PhD Researchers
Marius Ghincea: Dr. Ghincea was a PhD student at EUI in 2019-24, working with Checkel. He defended his thesis, Manufacturing Consensus: The Domestic Politics of Foreign and Security Policy, in March 2024. Marius is an international-relations specialist, with a particular focus on the domestic politics of foreign policy in advanced democracies. In September 2024, Ghincea started a three-year position as Postdoctoral Researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zuerich), working on Professor Frank Schimmelfennig's European Research Council project 'Bordering Europe: Boundary Formation in European Integration.'
Lars Erik L. Gjerde: Dr. Gjerde was a PhD student at the EUI in 2020-2024, working with Checkel. His thesis, Leviathans of Scandinavia: A Weberian-Foucauldian Study of the Politics of COVID-19 in Norway and Sweden, was defended in June 2024. Gjerde is a political sociologist and theorist, studying issues related to ideology as well as state power, primarily from a Weberian-Foucauldian perspective. Empirically, his work has primarily revolved around the politics of COVID-19. Gjerde's research has been published in Acta Sociologica and the Journal of Political Power; his first book, Nordic Leviathans: A Weberian-Foucauldian Study of the Politics of COVID-19 in Norway and Sweden, was published by Palgrave-Macmillan in 2025. Since fall 2025, Lars has been a lecturer / assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences, at the University of Tromsø / The Arctic University of Norway.
Selma Kropp: Dr. Kropp was a PhD student at EUI in 2020-25, working with Checkel and Stephanie Hofmann (co-supervisor). She defended her thesis, Children's Rights in Regional Organizations: Bureaucratic Agency and Normative Change, in April 2025. Selma is an international relations scholar with interests in regional organizations. Her publications include an article in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (co-authored with Wolfgang Minatti). During 2024-25, Dr. Kropp is Claus Wisser Postdoctoral Fellow, Normative Orders Project, Goethe-University Frankfurt.
Jan Lepeu: Dr. Lepeu was a PhD researcher at EUI from 2019 to 2025, under the supervision of Jeff Checkel and Stephanie Hofmann (co-supervisor). He defended his thesis, I Sanction Therefore I Am: A Genealogy of the Emergence of International Sanctioning as an EU Foreign Policy Practice, in September 2025. Jan’s research focuses on international sanctions, EU foreign and security policy, as well as international practice theory. His publications include an article in International Politics (Online First, 3 January 2025) and a chapter in the Elgar Encyclopedia of International Sanctions (2025). Since September 2025, Jan has been a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Florence School of Transnational Governance; and a Part-Time Lecturer, Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Syracuse University Program in Florence.
Wolfgang Minatti: Dr. Minatti was a PhD student at EUI in 2019-24, working with Checkel and Stephanie Hofmann (co-supervisor). He defended his thesis, A Theory of Legitimation in Civil War: The Justification of Power and Governance in the Colombian Conflict, in February 2024. Wolfgang specialises in conflict dynamics, international relations theory, and qualitative methodology. His publications include articles in the Review of International Studies, Qualitative Research and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (co-authored with Selma Kropp). From June 2024 to September 2025, Wolfgang was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Potsdam, working with Professor Andrea Liese. In October 2025, Wolfgang will move to Leuphana University, where he continues his research as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Chair of International Relations with Professor Tobias Lenz.
Liv Kristine Moe: Dr. Moe was a PhD researcher at the EUI from 2020 to 2025, working with Jeff Checkel. She defended her thesis, Global Security, Gender Politics, and the Prevention and Countering of Violent Extremism (P/CVE) - A Multi-Scalar Analysis, in October 2025. Liv is an international relations scholar interested in topics related to gender, global governance, security policy and practice, and research methodology. For her doctoral thesis, she conducted multi-sited fieldwork in Norway and Canada, exploring how gender interacts with policies and practices of preventing and countering violent extremism. Prior to joining the EUI, Liv gained an LLM in International Law and a Master of International Security at the University of Kent. Since August 2025, she has worked as an Acquisitions Editor at Scandinavian University Press.
Ophelia Nicole-Berva: Dr. Nicole-Berva was a PhD student at EUI in 2020-25, working with Checkel and Martin Ruhs (co-supervisor). She defended her thesis, Feeling the Border. Everyday Solidarity Activism at the Internal Borders of Europe, in March 2025. Ophelia’s dissertation is based on multi-sited ethnography with activists along the northern Italian border; in it, she explores the solidarity movement with migrants through a conceptual approach that examines the intersection of space and affect in everyday activism. More broadly, her research interests include social movement studies, border studies, critical and feminist theory, research methodology, collaborative methods, and research ethics. Dr. Nicole-Berva is now a Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Citizenship Studies (InCite), University of Geneva. Ophelia is part of the Horizon Europe DEMETRA project, which focuses on food democracy in urban settings, and for which she conducts fieldwork with various actors from the food system and civil society.
Juliette Saetre: Dr. Saetre was a PhD researcher at EUI from 2021 to 2025, under the supervision of Jeff Checkel and Arnout van de Rijt (co-supervisor). She defended her thesis, Turning the Tide: Mobility and the Upstream Diffusion of Political Attitudes and Behaviors, in November 2025. Saetre's work sits at the intersection of sociology and political science, focusing on how political attitudes and behaviours diffuse through migration and how this shapes collective action and public opinion in receiving communities. During her PhD, she was a visiting researcher at New York University and Sciences Po. Juliette's work has been published in the American Journal of Sociology (131/1 [July 2025]) and Qualitative and Multi-Method Research (23/1 [Spring 2025]). From January 2026, she will join the Institute for Advanced Study, Toulouse (IAST) as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow.
Melanie Sauter: Dr. Sauter was a PhD student at EUI in 2017-22, working with Checkel and Diego Gambetta (co-supervisors). She defended her thesis, Humanitarians under Attack, in September 2022. Melanie is a specialist on conflict dynamics, humanitarian aid and peacekeeping. Her research and publications (International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Peace Research) employ rigorously executed mixed-method designs. From September 2022 through December 2023, Sauter was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Oslo, working on Jana Krause’s European Research Council project, ‘Resilience Building: Social Resilience, Gendered Dynamics, and Local Peace in Protracted Conflicts.’ In January 2024, Melanie moved to the University of Oxford, taking up a Levin Junior Research Fellowship in Peace Studies at Lady Margaret Hall College. In September 2024, Dr. Sauter began a Junior Professorship in Analytical International Relations, University of Mannheim.
Post-Doctoral Fellows
Ben Mueser: Dr. Mueser was a Max Weber Post-Doctoral Fellow, working with Checkel, in 2020-22. Mueser received his PhD in Political Science from Columbia University, New York, in 2021. In his research, publications and teaching, Ben works across and integrates insights from both international relations theory and political theory – a rare combination in today’s hyper-specialized disciplinary milieus. Since leaving EUI in August 2022, Ben was - for two years - a Core Lecturer in Contemporary Civilization, Department of Political Science, Columbia University. Starting in September 2024, Dr. Mueser took up a position as Lecturer on Social Studies, Harvard University.
Shubha Prasad: Dr. Prasad was a Max Weber Post-Doctoral Fellow, working with Checkel, in 2020-22. In addition, during the 2021-22 academic year, she was a Part-Time Professor in Qualitative Methods, in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at EUI. Shubha’s 2020 PhD is from the Department of Political Science at Georgetown University, Washington, DC. She is an international relations theorist, with a focus on the domestic sources of foreign policy, spanning substate conflict to diaspora mobilization. In September 2022, Shubha began a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of International Relations, Hertie School, Berlin, Germany.
Sam Ritholtz: Dr. Ritholtz was a Max Weber Post-Doctoral Fellow, working with Checkel, in 2023-24. Sam defended his thesis at the Department of International Development, University of Oxford, in February 2023. Ritholtz’s research on marginalized social groups, gender and sexuality sits at the intersection of comparative politics, international relations and political theory. Dr. Ritholtz has published in the American Political Science Review; is the co-editor (along with Jamie Hagen and Andrew Delatolla) of Queer Conflict Research: New Approaches to the Study of Political Violence (Bristol University Press, 2024); and co-author (with Rebecca Buxton) of The Way Out: Justice in the Queer Search for Refuge (University of California Press, 2026). In January 2024, Sam accepted a position as Lecturer in International Relations, Department of Politics & International Relations, University of Oxford.