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 center

Event
14.07.2025 | Frankfurt

Utopie und Aufbruch der 1968er – Was von politischer Rebellion und individueller Selbstbefreiung geblieben ist

Panel Discussion

Die Diskussionsrunde mit Rainer Langhans, Christa Ritter, die seit 1978 zur Selbsterfahrungsgruppe um Langhans gehört, und dem Sozialphilosophen Martin Saar widmet sich utopischen Vorstellungen, die von der 1968er Bewegung ausgingen, und beleuchtet deren Ideale, Impulse, individuelle und gesellschaftspolitische Nachwirkungen.

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Event
10.07.2025 | Frankfurt am Main

Territorial Justice by Lea Ypi

Workshop

Workshop on the new book by Lea Ypi (LSE). With, among others: Andrea Sangiovanni and Ayelet Shachar.

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Event
01.07.2025 | Brussels

Europa in einer multipolaren Welt – Wie kann die EU den Herausforderungen gegenüber Großmächten begegnen?

Crisis Talk

Impuls von Prof. Dr. Nicole Deitelhoff mit anschließender Podiumsdiskussion

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News
22.05.2025

Does deliberative democracy have a future in the age of oligarchs, autocrats and patriarchs?

On June 3, Prof. Simone Chambers will give a lecture on the value of democracies and the future of the form of government.

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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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