Winds of change are blowing through PRIF: the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt is getting a new executive director starting April 1, 2016. After half a year of active engagement in the role of interim director, Prof Klaus Dieter Wolf (director of RD III) is handing over the management of PRIF to Prof. Nicole Deitelhoff, who has until now served as deputy director and head of the research group “Conflict and Normative Change: Norm Conflicts in Global Governance”. New deputy director will be Prof. Dr Christopher Daase, head of research department “International Institutions”.
Prof. Deitelhoff, who holds degrees from TU Darmstadt (Germany) and the State University of New York at Buffalo (USA), is familiar with PRIF through first-hand experience. She received a PhD grant from PRIF in 2001 and subsequently acquired her doctoral degree from TU Darmstadt in 2004. The ensuing career of this young political scientist progressed rapidly: the German Political Science Association (DVPW) awarded her the Young Academics Award for the best Dissertation in 2007, she was recognized through the Maier Leibnitz Prize for young researchers in 2008, and she received a professorship at the Goethe University Frankfurt just a year later, among the fastest to do so in the university’s history. Guest, research and interim professorships in Bremen, Jerusalem and Hawaii have broadened and deepened her research profile even further. Back in Frankfurt, she became a member of the Board of Directors at the Frankfurt University's Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders” and was in charge of creating the research focus “International Dissidence: Rule and Resistance in International Politics”.
“Conflict is legitimate. For there is a multitude of interests.” (Nicole Deitelhoff 2013, Süddeutsche Zeitung)
The research profile of this, so to speak, “conflict-seeking” researcher encompasses various facets: Prof Deitelhoff works in the areas of International Relations, Political Theory and Sociology, and, of course, peace and conflict research. In the past years, she has intensively focused on issues of norm formation and implementation along with opposition and dissent, investigating conflict and disputes throughout the world. Her work is characterized by “particularly original and innovative approaches and insights” (DFG) in that she connects the fundamentals of Political Theory with the challenges of Comparative Politics and other adjacent areas.
Great challenges await this excellent researcher in her new position as executive director of the largest institute for peace research in Germany. The research team is currently pressing ahead with a new research program that will be taken on by the research groups and departments in the coming years. Positioning innovative research, distinguishing the institute within the international research community, and winning over potential third-party donors with convincing projects while also considering the practical relevance of projects at the institute are just some of the matters that demand an assortment of skills. Around 60 researchers will be at her side who, over the last years, have successfully made a name for themselves within the academic community through their academic excellence and have likewise advised policy makers and society through innovative ideas and analyses.
Following a strenuous evaluation process, the institute was recognized for its long track record of high-caliber research when it became a member of the Leibniz Association in 2009, which was confirmed through a follow-up assessment in 2012. The institute will once again have to prove the continuance of its high-level research during the next assessment in 2019.
With its new executive director, PRIF can confidently await this new evaluation – for Nicole Deitelhoff is considered one of the “leading German political scientists” (FAZ) who not only shines in terms of international networking and engaging teaching but especially on account of her academic excellence.