Subsequently, she obtained her PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute in Florence.

From 2008 until 2016, she directed the DFG funded Research College “The Transformative Power of Europe”, together with Thomas Risse.

She studies how and under what conditions the EU promotes institutions and policy programs in and outside of Europe, and what mechanisms of diffusion are applied.

[7] She researches global processes of diffusion and resulting transformational changes inside the EU and its member states.

In her recent research, she investigates the contestation of liberal norms, such as academic freedom, within democratic societies.