About

Welcome! My name is Dr. Anne-Kathrin Kreft, and I am a violence researcher at the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony in Germany, where I am head of the research unit “Victimology.” My PhD is in Political Science from the University of Gothenburg (2019). Further degrees include an MA in Political Science from Western Washington University (2010), and a BA in British and American Studies and Text Technology from the University of Bielefeld (2007). From October 2020 until December 2023, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Political Science at the University of Oslo.

Expertise. My primary research interests are gender-based and political violence, the nexus of victimhood and socio-political agency, and public opinion on political violence and its victims. To date most of my research has concentrated on armed conflict settings, but going forward my focus will shift more towards violence dynamics in Western Europe, primarily Germany.

Mixed methods. In my work, I combine quantitative, qualitative and survey (experimental) methods, and I embrace an interdisciplinary curiosity. I have carried out qualitative (field) research in Colombia, Germany, Norway and Sweden, at the United Nations in New York, and at the European Union in Brussels; and survey research in Germany, the U.S., the UK and Sweden. I have ample experience conducting interviews with civil society actors, diplomats, international organization staff, politicians, bureaucrats, and victims of gender-based and political violence.

Accomplishments. For my PhD dissertation “Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict: Threat, Mobilization and Gender Norms” I received the 2020 Christiane-Rajewsky-Prize for early-career conflict researchers awarded by the German Association for Peace and Conflict Studies. To date, I have published 17 peer-reviewed articles, inter alia in the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Peace Research, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Affairs, Comparative Political Studies, International Studies Quarterly and International Peacekeeping, as well as various book chapters and research reports.

Project management. In addition to independently conceptualizing, securing funding for, and implementing research projects as an academic, I have project management experience from working in higher education consulting and as external expert at KfW Development Bank (Frankfurt). I have also completed internships at GIZ (Lusaka), the German Foreign Office (Berlin), and the World Federation of United Nations Associations (New York).

Education and outreach. I have given (guest) lectures and taught courses on armed conflict, gender, political violence, fieldwork, interviewing and qualitative data analysis in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland and the U.S. Likewise, I have both contributed to, and been cited in, different media outlets in various countries, and presented at more than 30 international conferences, workshops and events.

International. I have lived and worked in Germany, the U.S., Sweden, Norway, and, for shorter periods, in Colombia and Zambia. Besides being fluent in German and English, I have varying levels of proficiency in Norwegian, Swedish and Spanish.

Other interests. Some of the things I enjoy most are traveling, photography, northern lights hunting, and observing animals in the wild (from squirrels to arctic foxes, count me in!). I have a thing for off-the-beaten-track locations and a major crush on the Arctic. Closer to home, I like reading crime fiction, hiking, and knitting. I have a strong culinary affinity for cheese.

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