Professorship of Political Economy (2025-09-27)

If you’re thinking about writing your BA or MA thesis at the Professorship of Political Economy, this guide offers answers to questions you might (and probably should) have.

Is this professorship the right place for my thesis?

There are two main things to know.
First, your thesis should engage with the political economy of something—a topic at the intersection of politics and the economy, using approaches that scholars in comparative, international, or historical political economy would recognize. Ideally (but not necessarily), your topic connects to the current research agenda of the professorship. Feel free to ask if you’d like to know whether particular themes are of special interest for supervision.

Second, I have a strong preference for theses with an empirical focus. I’m pluralistic about methods—qualitative, quantitative, or mixed—but a literature review alone is not a method. I encourage you to be empirically ambitious, whether in data collection or analysis. To be clear:
I don’t expect a publishable paper, but I’d much rather see you try something challenging (and stumble a bit) than stay too safe from the start.

How do I begin the supervision process?

Before you reach out, please prepare a short exposé (about 0.5–1.5 pages). It should explain:

• Your research question or problem
• Why it matters, both theoretically and practically
• How you plan to address it—potential data sources, methods, or cases

This doesn’t have to be perfect or final—the point is to show that you’ve thought through your project and to give us something concrete to discuss when you reach out.

What can I expect from/during the supervision process?

Students vary in how much guidance they want. Our principle is simple: we aim to be as hands-off as you want us to be, and as hands-on as you need us to be. We’ll discuss your preferences in the first meeting and can adjust as the project develops. Transparency is key. If you run into problems—whether related to the thesis or external—please reach out rather than going silent. Issues can almost always be solved if addressed early.

Regarding grading, there should be no big surprises in grading. One point is worth stressing: evaluation is not based only on the final product, but also on what you learned in the process.
A project that takes risks, tries something ambitious, and fails productively can still receive an excellent grade. In the end, the thesis is not just about producing a text; it’s about using the project as a chance to develop your skills and knowledge.

What should I know about formal requirements?

In addition to the general rules laid out by TUM and your degree program, a few points are worth stressing.

First, formatting is not rocket science: use a readable font, sensible margins and font sizes, include page numbers, avoid paragraphs longer than half a page, and make use of diagrams or figures where appropriate to illustrate your argument and break up the text. I also have some ideas on what makes good writing which you can find here.

Second, I don’t need to tell you that you need to adhere to standards of academic writing. However, I don’t care which citation style you use as long as it’s clear and consistent. We will also have a conversation about the use of A.I. during one of our first meetings. In the meantime, you can find my general thoughts on this matter here.

Third, once we have agreed on supervision, you should send me the “Registration Final Thesis” form for signature. The form is available here.