She is a specialist in political science and European integration, the dean of the Munich School of Political Science, while at the same time taking up the management of the School of Governance at the Technical University of Munich, where she heads the chair on European and Global Governance.
She has a PhD in Political Science from the Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science at the Free University of Berlin, with aggregation from the Humboldt University of Berlin, and has taught at both universities. She was also a professor at the Technical University of Dresden, where she served as deputy director of the Centre for International Studies.
She has been a visiting professor at the Centre for European Studies at Harvard University, USA, the European University Institute in Florence and the Centre for Research in Social Sciences (WZB) in Berlin, among others.
She has won several awards and distinctions, including a consolidation grant from the European Research Council and the Heisenberg grant from the German Science Foundation.
She is the author of several books and monographs, with emphasis on the essay «The Future of the European Union», published by Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos in 2016.