Profile

Professional career

• since 10/2022
  Speaker of the Deans at Leipzig University
• since 05/2022
  Member of the Board of the Research Center for Transformation History at Leipzig University
• 10/2020 - 04/2024
  Coordinator, Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence "The European Union and its Rural Periphery in East Central Europe - Perceptions, Practices and Potentials of EU Citizenship"
• since 06/2020
  Member, Research Institute Social Cohesion (FGZ), institute branch Leipzig
• since 10/2019
  Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences and Philosophy (reelected in 2022 and in 2025)
• 04/2017 - 12/2019
  Managing Director, Institute for Political Science
• since 10/2017
  Member of the Advisory Board for Science, Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Eastern Germany
• 10/2016 - 09/2019
  Vice Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences and Philosophy
• 05/2015 - 04/2025
  Member of the Advisory Board, Saxon State Agency for Civic Education
• 04/2012 - 12/2014
  Managing Director, Institute of Political Science
• since 01/2012
  Chairwoman, Saxon Competence Center for State and Local Politics
• since 04/2011
  Professor of the German Political System and Politics in Europe, Leipzig University
• 10/2010 - 04/2013
  Member of the Editorial board, journal Politische Vierteljahresschrift (German Political Science Quarterly), published by the Executive Board of the German Political Science Association
• 04/2006 - 03/2011
  Junior Professor of German Politics, Institute of Social Sciences at Humboldt University of Berlin
• 02/2006
  Approval by the German Research Foundation (DFG) of funding for the position of research associate at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at Potsdam University (transformed into project funding)
• 10/2005 - 03/2006
  Contract Lecturer (Lehrbeauftragte) of Political Science at Potsdam University and Humboldt University of Berlin (Euromasters, Trans-Atlantic Masters)
• 06/2004 - 09/2006
  Co-Spokeswoman of the Working Group Eastern European Societies in Comparative Perspective, German Political Science Association
• 10/2002 - 09/2005
  Research Assistant to the Chair of German Politics at the Institute of Social Sciences at Humboldt University of Berlin and Contract lecturer (Lehrbeauftragte) at Free University of Berlin and Humboldt University
• 04/2001 - 09/2002
  Contract Lecturer (Lehrbeauftragte) at the Free University of Berlin and Humboldt University Berlin
• 04/1998 - 05/2001
  PhD scholarship of the German Research Foundation (DFG) as member of the Graduate School "The New Europe. National and International Dimensions of Institutional Change" at the Humboldt University Berlin
• 10/1996 - 03/1997
  Student assistant in the research group Leadership groups and 'apparatuses' of the SED regime (Arnd Bauerkämper, Jürgen Danyel, Peter Hübner, Sabine Ross) at the Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam e.V.

Education

• 07/2008
  Venia legendi for political science with the habilitation thesis "Constitutional Amendments in Established Democracies. Motivation and Patterns of Negotiation"
• 05/2001
  Doctorate (Dr. phil.) at the Humboldt University of Berlin, Institute of Social Sciences, with the dissertation "Forward into the Past? The Change of Political Institutions in the Republic of Belarus since 1991".
• 04/1994 - 09/1998
  Eastern European Studies at the Free University of Berlin, completed with the degree Magistra Artium
• 10/1993 - 12/1997
  Study of political science at the Free University of Berlin, graduated with diploma

Panel Memberships

• since 10/2022
  Speaker of the Deans at Leipzig University
• since 04/2020
  Member of Directors' board, Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe) at Leipzig University (as one representative of the Deans of the cooperating faculties), since 12/2023 represented by Vice Dean Prof. Dr. Patrick Donges
• 10/2019 - 09/2022
  Vice Speaker of the Deans at Leipzig University
• since 10/2019
  Member of the Senate of Leipzig University (as a Dean)
• since 10/2013
  Member of the Faculty Council, Faculty of Social Sciences and Philosophy (elected in 2013, 2016, 2019, 2022, 2025)

Prof. Dr Astrid Lorenz is active in the following research areas:

• Democracy in Europe,
• Constitutional politics and the rule of law,
• Politics in multi-level systems (federations, European Union),
• Transformation of political systems, especially Germany and East Central Europe,
• Europeanization and de-Europeanization processes,
• Interrelation between institutions and actors,
• Emergence, stability and dynamics of political institutions.

She is a member of the Research Institute Social Cohesion (FGZ). From 2020 to 2024, she coordinated the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence "The European Union and its Rural Periphery in East Central Europe" at Leipzig University.

Current research projects (funded by, function):

• Rule of law in East Central Europe (BMFTR, PI)
• Elites Monitor (Federal Government Commissioner for East Germany, Speaker, PI)
• Cohesion in regional structural change (BMFTR, PI in a joint project team with Halle University)
• Voluntary involvement in local municipal councils in Saxony (vhw)
• Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence „Problems of Representation" (EU, PI)

• Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence - "The European Union and Its Rural Periphery in East Central Europe"

  Lorenz, Astrid

  Duration: 10/2020 – 04/2024

  Funded by: EU Europäische Union

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie; Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe)
  show details
• The Rule of Law in Central and Eastern Europe (Re-Act II)

  Lorenz, Astrid

  Duration: 09/2024 – 09/2027

  Funded by: BMFTR Bundesministerium für ­Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie
  show details
• Cohesion in Europe-wide accelerated structural change. Interregional transfer of participatory approaches

  Lorenz, Astrid

  Duration: 05/2024 – ongoing

  Funded by: BMFTR Bundesministerium für ­Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe); Institut für Politikwissenschaft
  show details
• Elite Monitor 2 – Underrepresentation of East Germans in key leadership positions

  Lorenz, Astrid; Vogel, Lars; Kollmorgen, Raj; Reiser, Marion

  Duration: 09/2025 – 12/2028

  Funded by: andere Bundesministerien

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie
  show details
• Voluntary involvement in local politics in municipal councils in Saxony: challenges, motivations, opportunities for support

  Lorenz, Astrid; Träger, Hendrik

  Duration: 08/2025 – 08/2026

  Funded by: Vereine/Gesellschaft

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Politisches System Deutschlands und Politik in Europa
  show details

more projects

• Lorenz, A.; Anders, L. H. (Eds.)

  Illiberal Trends and Anti-EU Politics in East Central Europe

  Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 2021.

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54674-8
  show details
• Lorenz, A.; Pischtschan, L.

  Gleichwertige Lebensverhältnisse in Deutschland? Lokale Sichtweisen auf ein erklärtes Ziel deutscher Politik

  Wiesbaden: Springer VS. 2025.

  ISBN: 978-3-658-46601-5
  show details
• Lorenz, A.; Anders, L. H.; Müller, D.; Nemec, J.

  Narrating the Rule of Law. Patterns in East Central European Parliaments

  Cham: Springer. 2024.

  ISBN: 978-3-031-66331-4
  show details
• Vogel, L.; Lorenz, A.; Pates, R. (Eds.)

  Ostdeutschland. Identität, Lebenswelt oder politische Erfindung?

  Wiesbaden: Springer VS. 2024.

  ISBN: 978-3-658-43484-7
  show details
• Lorenz, A.; Maris, D.-M. (Eds.)

  Politics and Society in Romania. The Beginning of a New Transition?

  Wiesbaden: Springer. 2025.

  ISBN: 978-3-658-49514-5
  show details

more publications

• Andere Ehrung: Medaille "Sachsen - Land der friedlichen Revolution" anlässlich des 30. Jahrestags der Friedlichen Revolution und der Deutschen Einheit 2019/2020

  Lorenz, Astrid (Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie)

  awarded in 2020 by den Ministerpräsidenten des Freistaates Sachsen.
  show details
• Publikationspreis: Förderpreis für die beste Monographie nach der Promotion

  Lorenz, Astrid (Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie)

  awarded in 2009 by Deutsche Vereinigung für Politische Wissenschaft.
  show details

more awards

• Internationale Konferenz

  Rule of Law and the Judiciary in the EU Member States: Interdisciplinary and Comparative Perspectives

  Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie; Öffentliches Recht, Europa- und Völkerrecht, Migrationsrecht und Rechtsvergleichung

  Event Organiser: Lorenz, Astrid; Wendel, Mattias

  28/01/2022
  show details
• Internationale Konferenz

  The Rule of Law – Bridging or Sanctioning Differences?

  Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie; Juristische Fakultät

  Event Organiser: Lorenz, Astrid; Wendel, Mattias

  28/09/2023 – 29/09/2023
  show details
• internationale Konferenz

  A New Era of Rule of Law Challenges

  Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften und Philosophie; Öffentliches Recht, Europa- und Völkerrecht, Migrationsrecht und Rechtsvergleichung

  Event Organiser: Lorenz, Astrid; Wendel, Mattias

  25/09/2024 – 26/09/2024
  show details
• Konferenz (gefördert durch die Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung)

  1989/90 – Aufbruch ohne Ende?

  Politisches System Deutschlands und Politik in Europa

  Event Organiser: Vogel, Lars; Lorenz, Astrid; Pates, Rebecca

  21/11/2019 – 22/11/2019
  show details

more events

Prof. Dr. Astrid Lorenz teaches on the following topics:

• German political system
• Political systems in comparitive perspective,
• Democracy in Europe,
• Politics and law in the European multi-level system,
• Government, political actors and institutions,
• Transformation processes,
• Federal and state politics in Germany,
• Europeanization and de-Europeanization,
• Political participation.

• Lecture "Democratic Governance. Actors and Interactions in the Federal Republic of Germany"

  each summer term

  The lecture gives an overview of approaches to study governance, actors (Parties, media and others), policy-making and policy implementation. Empirically, it focuses on Germany.

• Lecture "Political Systems"

  each winter term

  The lecture gives an overview of approaches and models of comparative political science and political institutions. Empirically, it is focused on Europe.

• "Rule of law in the European multi-level system"

  each winter term

• "Interest Representation and Citizen participation in the EU multi-level system"

  each summer term

• Seminars covering changing other topics

• Jour fixe for BA, MA and Staatsexamen theses

  monthly, each 1st wednesday, starting 11 a.m.

• Colloquium for PhD students and Postdocs

  monthly, each 3rd wednesday, starting 11 a.m.