I studied Political Science, Economics, and International Relations in Mannheim and Istanbul, before taking a post-graduate course in European Studies at Maastricht University. Since 2012, I am working on my PhD at Oldenburg, complemented by a stay at the University of Edinburgh in 2015. My PhD is on European Commissioners, I aim to show under what circumstances they act as national agents as opposed to committed Europeans.

I love doing sports: running, cycling, badminton, etc. Other than that, I like to travel if time allows.

My primary research interest is obviously the European Union, especially institutional questions like those I work on in my PhD thesis. I am also interested in following integration initiatives elsewhere, Mercosur being an example.

Articles in peer reviewed journals

Renke Deckarm and Sebastian Fietkau (2014), ‘The New Member States’ Commitment to independent European Commissioners’, Poznán University of Economics Review 14(3): 39-57.

Torsten J. Selck and Renke Deckarm (2013), ‘A Cultured Club: Explaining EU Membership’, Turkish Journal of Politics 4(2): 127-131.

Other Publications

Renke Deckarm and Sebastian Fietkau (2014), ‘Die doppelte relative Mehrheit: Wie der Vertrag von Lissabon Juncker zum Kommissionspräsidenten macht‘, Zweitstimme, das Politik-Blog, blog.zeit.de/zweitstimme/2014/06/03/die-doppelte-relative-mehrheit-wie-der-vertrag-von-lissabon-juncker-zum-kommissionpraesidenten-macht/