Maximilian Wegener
Chair of Human Rights Politics
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Since April 2026, Maximilian Wegener is a researcher at the Institute of Political Science. As part of the Chair of Human Rights Politics (Prof. Dr. Katrin Kinzelbach), Maximilian Wegener studies a broad array of themes at the interface between empirical human rights research, Peace and Conflict Studies, and International Relations.
Maximilian Wegener studied Political Science with a particular focus on Peace and Conflict Studies in Düsseldorf, Belfast, Tübingen, and Brisbane. In his doctoral project at Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen, he subsequently examined both the escalation and de-escalation of group-selective mass violence. With a particular emphasis on Kenya (2007-2022), his dissertation investigated how societies on the brink of anti-civilian atrocity crimes, including potential genocide, manage to avert full-blown escalation despite major risk.
In both research and teaching, Maximilian Wegener continues to focus on armed conflicts, peace processes, and the (de-)escalation of mass violence. His current research projects revolve around the ideological-discursive justification of genocidal violence across space and time, the nexus between transnational autocratization and human rights violations, as well as the conditions and strategies of civil society resistance amidst an increasingly shrinking civic space.
- Human and State security
- Genocide and mass atrocity crimes
- Transnational autocratization and human rights
- Escalation and de-escalation of armed conflicts
- Atrocity prevention, conflict transformation, and peace processes
- Political repression and civil society resistance
- International human rights protection
- Wegener, Maximilian & Williams, Timothy (2026). Transformations of Genocidal Violence: Causes, Catalysts and (De-)Escalations. In: Bonacker, Thorsten, Christopher Daase, Jonas Driedger, Lam-Phuong Nguyen Pham, and Jannik Pfister (eds.). Routledge Handbook on Transformations of Political Violence. New York: Routledge. – Forthcoming
- Wegener, Maximilian (2025). Tracing Interdisciplinary Research on Atrocity Crimes. Journal of Perpetrator Research, 8 (1): 369-375.
- Wegener, Maximilian (2025). Unterlassene Hilfeleistung? Die internationale Gemeinschaft und ein möglicher Völkermord im Sudan. Wissenschaft & Frieden, 43 (1): 13-15.
- Mucha, Witold & Wegener, Maximilian (2023). No Voice for the Global South: Analysing the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA). Acta Academia, 55 (1): 84 107.
- Wegener, Maximilian (2022). Legitimierung des Illegitimen: Ideologische Sprache und der Völkermord an den Rohingya. Wissenschaft & Frieden, 40 (3): 42-45.