Dr. Nina Krienke

Post-doctoral research fellow
Department of Politics and Economics

Room 3640 / +49-421-218-69637
krienke@uni-bremen.de



 

---

Research Project
Protest as a Democracy Test: Protest Culture under Transformation and as a Transformative Power (ProTest)


Dissertation project
Processes of political meaning-making and contentious positioning. Recent Romanian cycles of mass protest and their activists' motives and demands

Research Interests

• civil society and protest culture in periods of societal change
• democracy theory and philosophy of the political
• politics and contemporary history of Eastern Europe

 
Education

since 01/2025: postdoctoral researcher, Research Centre for East European Studies, ProTest project

10/2018-12/2024 PhD candidate, Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen
 
10/2014 - 06/2017 MA in Democratic Politics and Communication at the University of Trier; Title of MA thesis: Two sides of the same coin? The ‚paradigm of catch-up modernization‘ and the ‚simultaneity problem‘ in Transformation Studies

 
2010 - 2013 BA in Systematic Musicology and Political Science at the University of Hamburg; Title of BA-thesis: The emotional substance of microtonality
 

Work Experience
 
03/2016 - 05/2016: Intern at the redaction of the Journal Eastern Europe, Berlin
 
09/2015 - 10/2015: Intern at GIZ Ukraine, Kiev (Reform advisory fund for the Ukrainian Government, Strenghtening administrative authorities to reform public finances)
 
01/2014 - 03/2014: Research assistant and author at the Federal Agency for Civic Education, Hamburg
 
10/2013 - 08/2014: Intercultural communications consultant and language mediator (Romanian) at the street magazine Hinz&Kunzt, Hamburg
 

Scholarships and Awards
 

05/2024-07/2024: DAAD- Research scholarship for PhD candidates, 2024 (57694190)
 

02/2024-06/2024: Completion grant, Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen
 

10/2019-02/2024: Full doctoral scholarship at the German Academic Scholarship Foundation

2017: Award for the best thesis in the department of Political Science in 2017, conferred by the Alumni Association of Political Sciences at the University of Trier


Publications

Krienke, Nina (2026). “Encorporation - Southeastern Transformations as Objects, Subjects, and Principles of Study,”, https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/6359 (essay) 

Krienke, Nina (2025): Political meaning-making in Romania's recent mass protests (~2012-2019) – Ethnographic research with Romanian activists connected to the protest cycles between 2012-2019 - collaborative talks, interviews, participant observation, activist publications. 10.48320/A3D82B9D-2304-4226-B0BD-FBAC2B3B88F9

Krienke, Nina (2024): Processes of political meaning-making and contentious positioning. Recent Romanian cycles of mass protest and their activists' motives and demands, dissertation thesis, https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/3539

Nina Krienke (2023) The Political Economy of Eastern Europe 30 Years into the ‘Transition’. New Left Perspectives from the Region, Europe-Asia Studies, 75:6, 1049-1051, DOI: 10.1080/09668136.2023.2224185 (review)

Krienke, N. (2022). Interpreting the Political, Politicizing Interpretation: Doing Politically Sensible Social Science Research. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 22(6), 562–575. https://doi.org/10.1177/15327086221105665

Krienke, Nina (2019): Ausgang aus der Gemunkelzone. Der Einfluss des Westens in der Ukraine, in: Osteuropa 3-4/2019, S. 193-210, https://www.zeitschrift-osteuropa.de/hefte/2019/3-4/ausgang-aus-der-gemunkelzone/