I am an Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Digital Criminology at the University of Manchester and a Research Affiliate with the Governance of Digital Practices Research Platform at the University of Vienna.
My research contributes to two lines of research. First, it explores how digitally mediated forms of drug-related deviance emerge and how traditional forms of demand and supply change. In doing so, I contribute to the emerging field of digital criminology. Second, it explores how drug distributing platforms emerge as infrastructures that mediate between different user groups. The rise of the platform to the dominant business model is widely discussed as platformisation. In relation to both research directions, I apply critical social theories and combine digital and analogue research methods. I also enjoy employing an interdisciplinary approach. In doing so, I combine concepts from criminology, economic sociology and political economy. My research has received funding from a range of institutions, including the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Recently, I was awarded with the prestigious Elise Richter grant after receiving an Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship by the FWF and the Marie Jahoda Fellowship by the University of Vienna.
My work has been published in high impact journals including the International Journal of Drug Policy and Qualitative Research. I edited Drogen, Darknet und Organisierte Kriminalität. Herausforderungen für Politik, Justiz und Drogenhilfe (Drugs, Darknet and Organised Crime. Challenges for Politics, Judiciary and Drug Counselling) (with Heino Stöver) and a special issue on Drugs and Digital Technologies (with Bernd Werse) of Kriminologisches Journal. I am editorial board member of the interdisciplinary journal Kriminologisches Journal (KrimJ) and elected board member of the Economic Sociology Research Network of the European Sociological Association (ESA).
I received a PhD in Political Science with distinction from the University of Vienna where I also hold a MA in Political Science, Media Studies and Communication Science with distinction.
Prior to joining the University of Manchester, I was a Senior Scientist at the Department of Applied Sociology of Law and Criminology at the University of Innsbruck and a Senior Postdoc Fellow at the University of Vienna’s Department of Political Science. As part of the Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship, I was a visiting researcher in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex and in the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo. Before that I was a guest researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin and the Jacobs University Bremen. I was also a Lecturer at the Freie Universität Berlin and a Senior Researcher at the Vienna Centre for Societal Security.
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