Franziska Müller, Professorship of International Development

Contact Franziska Müller

"My identity as a scientist is characterized by the urge to help shape socio-ecological transformations through research and to contribute to collective ecological survival. I see myself as a committed scientist and scholar activist with roots in the anti-nuclear and climate justice movements. My understanding of research is characterized by the interest in reconstructing discourse constellations and power relations and addressing questions of socio-ecological and political justice, especially in the field of climate, energy and environmental justice as well as with regard to post/decolonial contexts." (Franziska Müller)

Research areas:

* Anthropocene, ecological collapse and political ecology
* Energy transition and energy justice
* Energy colonialism, green colonialism and green extractivism
* Development theories and development cooperation
* Green hydrogen
* Green financial flows
* Postcolonial / decolonial studies
* Qualitative methods
* Socio-ecological transformation and transformation conflicts
* Western and Southern Africa

Curriculum Vitae:

Studied political science, cultural anthropology and economics at the Universities of Tübingen, Birmingham and Frankfurt
2007-2010 Scholarship holder of the Heinrich Böll Foundation; doctoral program “Global Social Policies & Governance”, University of Kassel
2009 Visiting researcher at the University of Pretoria; research stay at Yale University
2013 PhD “In the name of liberal norms? Governmentality and Normative Power in EU-ACP Relations”, PhD program Global Social Policies & Governance and TU Darmstadt
2010-2014 Research assistant at the TU Darmstadt and at the Cluster of Excellence “Normative Orders” with Prof. Dr. Michèle Knodt and Prof. Dr. Jens Steffek; coordination of the VW joint project “Challenges of External Energy Governance with Emerging Powers”
2014-2017 Research assistant at the University of Kassel, Department of Globalization and Politics Research stays in South Africa and Zambia; visiting researcher at the University of Cape Coast/Ghana
2017-2023 Head of the BMBF junior research group “GLOCALPOWER - Funds, Tools and Networks for an African Energy Transition”; research stays in South Africa, Zambia and Ghana
2023 Senior Fellow at the University of Sussex, Centre for Advanced International Theory
2020-2025 Junior Professor for Globalization and Governance of Climate Policy, University of Hamburg
since March 2025 Professor of International Development at the University of Vienna