Fellow

Selma

Selma Kropp is a political scientist trained in universities in Germany, France, and Italy. Before starting her doctoral project, she worked for the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights in Vienna and the Dahrendorf Programme for the Study of Freedom at St. Antony’s College in Oxford. Her academic work focuses on bureaucratic action in International and Regional Organizations, human rights, and children’s rights. Her PhD thesis, which she pursued at the European University Institute in Florence, is entitled “Children’s Rights in Regional Organizations Bureaucratic Agency and Normative Change.” In the context of her doctoral research, she conducted fieldwork, including archival research and interviewing in Addis Ababa, Brussels, and Strasburg.

Her Claus Wisser Fellowship project is entitled “Children’s Rights in the Context of Migration: Navigating the Regime Complex between Strasbourg, Brussels, and Geneva.” It explores how European bureaucrats use organizational overlaps between the Council of Europe and the European Union to raise controversial children’s rights issues on the European agenda. One of the most contentious issues among member states of the European Union concerns children’s rights in migration situations. Even though international and European law posits that children should be deprived of their liberty only as a measure of last resort, children continue to be detained in Europe in migration-related contexts. This has been highlighted, for instance, in the last UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty in 2019. By examining attempts by European member states to avoid public scrutiny when it comes to violations of self-set standards at the international level as well as reactions by European bureaucrats, this project fits into the current theme of Normative Orders, “The Future of Democracy”. Theoretically, it contributes to regime complexity and critical International Relations norm research.

News from the research institute

Event
16.06.2025 | Frankfurt am Main

Trump and the Assault on the State

Lecture

Vortrag von Jeffrey Kopstein Professor der Politikwissenschaft an der University of California, Irvine) über die Gefahr einer Erosion des Staates und Wege gegen den Trend zur Zerstörung.

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News
19.05.2025

What can a baroque tapestry tell us about colonial iconography?

Lecture by Cécile Fromone on May 21. The professor at the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, director of the Cooper Gallery at the Hutchins Center and author will talk about the long-forgotten African origins of iconography and its colonial dimension.

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News
05.05.2025

Normative Orders Newsletter 01/25 published

The newsletter from Research Centre Normative Orders collects information on current events, reports, news and publications several times a year. Read the first issue 2025 here.

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News
05.05.2025

"Hitler. History of a Dictator" by Sybille Steinbacher will be published on May 15, 2025

The historian's new book deals with Hitler's origins, the roots of his anti-Semitism and his rise to power.

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News
29.04.2025

Public lecture series “Racism in the police” begins on May 13, 2025

Racism in the police has various dimensions. In the lecture series “Racism in the police - empirical findings, methodological approaches and controversies”, three empirical studies on police work will be presented.

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Publication
22.04.2025 | Encyclopedia

Edessa (Fourth Century bc to the Eighth Century ad)

Leppin, Hartmut (2025): "Edessa (Fourth Century bc to the Eighth Century ad)". In: Raja, Rubina (ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East, Oxford Academic, pp. 491-506.

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News
10.04.2025

Shaping the future - between climate change, technology and social responsibility

A new series of lectures by the research center as part of the “Fixing Futures” exhibition on the implications of climate change and technological progress.

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