Resumé
Research Areas
Prof. Paula researches and teaches in the field of Human Security and Contentious Politics. A particular focus of her work is how changing information- and communication technologies and their strategic use and control affect political mobilization and violence. Exemplary research areas include the effect of information technologies on the spatial and temporal diffusion of protests, the effect of state censorship on political attitudes, or the strategic use of violence during elections, as well as methods of data collection in the field of conflict studies and statistical modeling of spatial processes.
Academic Career
Prof. Paula studied Sociology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and holds a Dr. rer. soc. (PhD) from the Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences (GESS) at the University of Mannheim (2019). Before joining the TUM as Assistant Professor (tenure track) of “Global Security and Technology” in 2020, she was a researcher and lecturer at the Chair for Methods of Empirical Social Research and a researcher on the ERC Project "Repression and the Escalation of Violence" at the Chair of International Relations, both at the University of Mannheim.
Most important awards
2021, Academy of Sociology Dissertation Award for best dissertation submitted in the years 2019 and 2020
2020, Lorenz-von-Stein-Preis for the best dissertation in the social sciences 2019 at the University of Mannheim
2020, Disseration Award Stiftung Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaften
2020, Bojanovsky-Preis for article publication “Sometimes Less Is More: News Falsification, Censorship, and Disapproval in 1989 East Germany”, published in the American Journal of Political Science (together with Ch. Gläßel)
Key Publications
Carey S, Mitchell N, Paula K: “The Life, Death, and Diversity of Pro-Government Militias: The Fully Revised Pro-Government Militias Database Version 2.0.” Research and Politics. Forthcoming.
Gläßel Ch, Paula K: “Sometimes Less Is More: Censorship, News Falsification, and Disapproval in 1989 East Germany.” American Journal of Political Science. 2020; 64 (3): 682-698.
Rauschenbach M, Paula K: “Intimidating Voters with Violence and Mobilizing Them with Clientelism.” Journal of Peace Research. 2019; 56 (5): 682-696.