Maximilian Wegener

Postdoctoral Researcher

Contact: maximilian.wegener@fau.de

Short Bio

Maximilian Wegener is a Postdoctoral Researcher at both the Cluster of Excellence “Transforming Human Rights” as well as at FAU’s 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 with an empirical focus on sub-Saharan Africa. 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.

Maximilian’s current project investigates transnational autocratization in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) and its implications for both the top-down curtailment and bottom-up defense of human rights across borders. Drawing on an abductive and iterative content analytical approach, he studies how (regionalized) transnational autocratization materializes and to what extent human rights implications differ from state to state. Maximilian then examines how civil society responds to autocratization and human rights abuse across borders by tracing both the structural prerequisites and tactical repertoires of collective action and local contestation. As such, his project not only illuminates how transnational autocratization transforms human rights norms, institutions, and practices in a specific empirical context; it also speaks to concomitant theoretical debates regarding the potentials, limitations, and principal duty-bearers of human rights in contexts of convergent authoritarianism.

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Wegener, Maximilian & Mucha, Witold (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.