I am a Senior Scientist at the Department of Applied Sociology of Law and Criminology at the University of Innsbruck and a Research Affiliate of the Research Platform Governance of Digital Practices at the University of Vienna.
My research contributes to two research lines. First, how digitally mediated forms of drug-related deviance emerge and traditional forms of demand and supply change. In doing so, I contribute to the emerging field of digital criminology. Second, how 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 work with critical theories which I empirically test by combining digital and analog 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 appeared in high impact journals such as the International Journal of Drug Policy and Qualitative Research, among others. I edited the book Drogen, Darknet und Organisierte Kriminalität. Herausforderungen für Politik, Justiz und Drogenhilfe (Drugs, darknet and organised crime. Challenges for politics, judiciary and drug counseling) with Nomos Publishing House.
I am Editorial Board Member of the academic journal Kriminologisches Journal (KrimJ, since 2017) and elected Board Member of the Economic Sociology Research Network of the European Sociological Association (since 2021).
I also have the pleasure of organising the Annual Conference of the European Society for Social Drug Research (ESSD) in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
I received a PhD in Political Science with distinction from the University of Vienna and I hold an MA in Political Science, Media Studies and Communication Science with distinction from the University of Vienna.
Previously, I was principal investigator of the project “Dealing with uncertainty on anonymous online drug markets”, which was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). The project examined how social interactions enable market exchange on anonymous online markets for drugs. As part of the Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship, I was a visiting researcher in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex (2018–2019) and in the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo (2017–2018). In 2019, I returned to the University of Vienna’s Department of Political Science as a Senior Postdoc Fellow. In 2021, I was awarded the Marie Jahoda Fellowship by the University of Vienna.
Prior, I was a guest researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin (2016–2017). Before that, I was a Senior Researcher at the Vienna Centre for Societal Security (2013–2017) where I developed, coordinated and conducted collaborative security research projects funded by the European Commission (FP7 programme) and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (KIRAS programme).
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