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Research

Research in the field of political philosophy, theory and the history of ideas. Key research areas, research interests and collaboration

In the field of political philosophy, theory and the history of ideas, we conduct fundamental research into concepts, classic works and lesser-known authors, as well as more application-oriented studies that contribute to clarifying the requirements, challenges and policy options for liberal democracies.


Historically, our research has focused on antiquity, the early modern period and the modern era; systematically, we prioritise the history of ideas and the theory of liberalism and democracy, comparative democratic theory and applied democratic theory (the challenge to democracy posed by emerging technologies). Our analyses of Plato, Hobbes, Tocqueville and Rawls have so far occupied a special place; we examine these thinkers with both a systematic-hermeneutic and a contemporary, application-oriented approach.

Selected publications

Strömel: Handbook to Tocqueville. Edited by Skadi Siiri Krause; Norbert Campagna and Oliver Hidalgo (Springer 2026)

Odzuck: Germline interventions in the name of freedom? A critique of ‘liberal eugenics’ from the perspective of political theory (Karl Alber 2026) (external link, opens in a new window)

Odzuck: What does ‘liberal’ mean here? Conceptual work as a task of political theory, using the example of the public debate on germline interventions (Nomos 2023) (external link, opens in a new window)

Strömel/Funke: Learning about discrimination: race, gender, intersectionality and the simulation game as a method in political education in schools, in: Bechtel et al.: Why focus on gender? (Wochenschauverlag 2024) (external link, opens in a new window)

Odzuck: The Challenge of Democracy in the Digital Age, in: Nida-Rümelin et al. (eds.): Normative Foundations of Democracy (De Gruyter 2024) (external link, opens in a new window)

Strömel: Tocqueville and Individualism in Democracy (Springer 2023) (external link, opens in a new window)

Glasze, Odzuck and Staples (eds.): What Does Digital Sovereignty Mean? (Transcript, 2022) (external link, opens in a new window)

Odzuck: Thomas Hobbes’ Body-Based Liberalism (Duncker & Humblot, 2016) (external link, opens in a new window)

In our systematic, fundamental research and in our applied research, in our efforts to support early-career researchers, facilitate knowledge transfer and promote political education, we are keen to collaborate both within and across disciplines with colleagues in various professional associations and institutions both in Germany and abroad.

To date, these have included, for example, the Academy for Political Education in Tutzing (external link, opens in a new window), the American Philosophical Association (external link, opens in a new window), the American Political Science Association (external link, opens in a new window), the Bavarian Doctoral College (external link, opens in a new window) for (external link, opens in a new window) Political Theory (external link, opens in a new window), the German Political Science Association (external link, opens in a new window), the German Society for the Study of Political Thought (external link, opens in a new window), the German Society for Philosophy (external link, opens in a new window), the German Political Science Association (external link, opens in a new window), the European Consortium for Political Research (external link, opens in a new window), the European Hobbes Society (external link, opens in a new window), the Society for Ancient Philosophy (external link, opens in a new window), the International Hobbes Society (external link, opens in a new window), the ‘theorieblog’ (external link, opens in a new window), and the philosophy blog ‘praefaktisch (external link, opens in a new window)’.

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