Sonja Grimm

Since April 2009 Dr. Sonja Grimm has been an Associate Professor ("Akademische Rätin") of International Politics at the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz. She specializes in democratization in post-conflict societies, and international promotion of democracy, at the crossroads of comparative politics, and international relations. Her habilitation thesis "Studies of International Democracy Promotion in Postconflict Societies and Fragile States" investigates the interaction of external and domestic actors in democracy promotion.

Along with her research projects, Sonja Grimm teaches various courses for the Political Science and Public Policy Bachelors and Masters majors at the university. Before coming to Konstanz, Sonja Grimm worked as employee at the Social Science Research Center Berlin. She taught at the Humboldt University in Berlin and earned her doctoral degree from the Institute of Social Sciences. Her dissertation, "Erzwungene Demokratie. Politische Neuordnung unter externer Aufsicht in Nachkriegsgesellschaften" [Imposed Democracy: Political New Order under External Oversight in Post-War Societies]  focused on the role of external actors in the building up of democratic institutions after a civil war and military intervention. Dr. Grimm studied from 1998 to 2004 political science, history, and art history at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg and at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Science Po, Paris.