Dr. Dannica Fleuss
Research Fellow / Senior Lecturer

Guest Lectures, Talks and Workshops/Panels organised

Selected Panels and Workshops Organised

2022

"Decolonization Series" - Webinars and workshop organisation with Azucena Moran, Melisa Ross, co-convenors of the UK Political Studies Association's Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group, the ECPR Democratic Innovations Standing Group, the Centre of Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, Manchester Metropolitan University, Journal of Deliberative Democracy, Journal Democratic Theory.

"(How) Can Grounded Theory Democratize Theorizing about Democracy?" Conference panel at the UK Political Studies Association's Annual International Conference 2022, with contributions by H. Asenbaum, Genevieve Fuji-Johnson, D. Fleuss, J. Parkinson.

Co-organization Conference "Global Actors in Eastern Africa and the Great Lakes Region in the Rapidly Changing World Order: Current Trends and Developments", Conference 2022 Riara University, Nairobi, 30 November-1 December 2022.

2021

Webinar Series “Beyond Liberal Democracy: African and Western Perspectives in Dialogue” — Cooperation between the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Nairobi (Kenia) and Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group, Political Studies Association (UK), Oktober 2021.

Book Launch (on behalf of PSA Specialist Group for Participatory and Deliberative Democracy PDD): "How People Talk About Politics: Brexit and Beyond. Stephen Coleman in conversation with Anastasia Deligiaouri and Dannica Fleuss", 10 May 2021.

Panel Sessions for Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group, Annual International Conference of the British Political Science Association (PSA) “Resilience, Expertise and Hope”, 29-31 March 2021. (with H. Asenbaum, S. Bussu, A. Deligiaouri)
Panel “How should we research deliberative democracy?”, Annual International Conference of the British Political Science Association (PSA) “Resilience, Expertise and Hope”, 29-31 March 2021. (with Rod Dacombe)


2020

Summer Webinar Series, Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group (Political Studies Association, UK). Program and recordings available here. (with H. Asenbaum, S. Bussu, A. Deligiaouri)


2019

Workshop on “Teaching Political Theory in Higher Education” [“Hochschullehre in der Politischen Theorie und Ideengeschichte: Selbstverständnis, Praxis, Perspektiven”], Hamburg University, May 10-11, 2019. (with Andreas Busen and Alexander Weiß)

“Radical Democracy, Deliberative Democracy, Agonistic Democracy? – Choosing Enemies, Crossing Boundaries and Bridging “the Divide” — PSA Annual Conference 2019 – (Un-) Sustainable Politics in a Changing World, University of Nottingham, April 15-17, 2019.


2018

“Civic Virtue in Participatory Spaces: Reappraising Citizenship after the “Systemic Turn“ — International Conference of the Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group, PSA: “Participatory Spaces in Perspective”, Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster, London, September 5-7, 2018. (with William Smith, Chinese University of Hongkong)



Selected Conference and Workshop Contributions (peer-reviewed)


2021

"Democratic Rationality Needs Emotional Security: A Deliberative Perspective on Political (Un-)Certainties and (In-)Securities.“ — Panel “The Value of Uncertainty in Democratic Systems”, DVPW Congress 2021, 14-19 September 2021.

"Let’s Talk About It: Reconciling Deliberative and Populist Analyses of Democratic Discourses" — Panel „Destructive or Deliberative? Deliberation among the Political Elite” at the ECPR General Conference 2021, 20 August-3 September 1021 (with Saskia P. Ruth-Lovell)

“Challenging the Rules of the Game: The Role of Bottom-up Participatory Experiments for Deliberative Democracy”, Interpretive Policy Analysis Conference, Panel: “Reclaiming participatory governance: how social movements are re-imagining democratic innovations”, 28 Juni 2021.

“Bringing Citizens Back in: Institutional Design without Institutional Engineering”, ECPR Joint Sessions 2021, 26-27 May 2021.

“How Should We Research Deliberative Democracy? A problem-oriented approach to bridging theory and method – and a plea for methodological pluralism.” Annual International Conference of the British Political Science Association (PSA) “Resilience, Expertise and Hope”, 29-31 March 2021. (with Rod Dacombe)


2020

"'Assessing “Communication Flows' – A Framework for Measuring Transmissions between Democratic Innovations and Empowered Institutions"- Presentation, Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group Webinar "Participatory Systems", July 30, 2020. (with Christoph Deppe) 


2019

"Sollen wir in Demokratiekrisen 'Ziviler Ungehorsam' oder zivilen Ungehorsam lehren? Wissenschaftliche, pädagogische, politische Rollen Theorielehrender im Spannungsverhältnis" [Teaching (the theory of) civil disobedience. Reflections on the roles of university teachers in democratic crises] - Presentation, DVPW Congress "Wie relevant ist die Politikwissenschaft?", Goethe University Frankfurt, December 13, 2019.

"What are we doing when we are doing political theory? — Politiktheoretische Praxis als Mittler von idealer Theorie und empirischer Sozialforschung" [What are we doing when we are doing political theory? – Political Theory as a Mediator Between Ideal Theory and Social Sciences] - Presentation, Tagung für Praktische Philosophie, Panel „Ideale und nichtideale Politische Philosophie und normative Politische Theorie“, Salzburg University, September 26, 2019. (with Gary S. Schaal)

"Digitale Hermeneutik" [Digital Hermeneutics] - Presentation and Roundtable discussion about digitalization as a challenge for political theory and philosophy, Conference of the DVPW section for political theory, Hamburg University, September 18, 2019. (with Gary S. Schaal)

"'Flows of Communication‘ in Deliberative Systems: A Theory-Driven Concept of Transmissions for Evaluating Democratic Innovations“ - Presentation, ECPR General Conference, Panel „Democratic Innovations and the Systems Turn“, Wroclaw, September 5, 2019.

"Let’s Talk About It: Reconciling Deliberative and Populist Analyses of Democratic Discourses" - Presentation, ECPR General Conference, Panel „Deliberative Democracy and Populism“, Wroclaw, 6. September 2019. (with Saskia P. Ruth-Lovell)

"Assessing Transmissions: An Empirical Framework for Evaluating Democratic Innovations’ Impact on Collectively-Binding Decision-Making" - Presentation, ECPR General Conference, Panel „Evaluating Democratic Innovations“, Wroclaw, September 6, 2019. (with Christoph Deppe)

“A Modular Toolkit for Teaching the Measurement and Comparison of Democratic Quality - Presentation, APSA Centennial Center Teaching & Learning Symposium on Comparative Politics, Washington DC, June 3-5, 2019.

“Normative Politische Theorie in Deutschland und Tansania lehren. Didaktische und inhaltliche Herausforderung im interkulturellen Vergleich” [Teaching Political Theory in Germany and Tanzania. Comparing Didactical, Political, and Theoretical Challenges]. - Presentation, Workshop “Hochschullehre in der Politischen Theorie und Ideengeschichte. Selbstverständnis, Praxis, Perspektiven”, Hamburg University, May 11, 2019.

“Why we should decide to be deliberative democrats. A non-foundationalist approach to deliberative theory” - Presentation, Political Studies Association, Annual Conference 2019, April 16, 2019.

„Politisch sensible normative Fragen diskutieren — aber wie? Politische Theorie in Deutschland und Tansania lehren: ein Erfahrungsbericht aus dem interkulturellen Vergleich“ [How to Address Contentious Normative Claims in German and Tanzanian Teaching Settings. An Intercultural Comparison] - Presentation, Annual Conference  Arbeitskreis Hochschullehre der DVPW, University of Münster, February 26, 2019.

„Different Differences: How to Address Cultural Diversity, Inter-Individual Variances, and Conceptual Blind Spots in Researching Understandings of Democracy“ - Presentation, Panel „Configurations of Democracy“, Three Country Congress / Drei-Länder-Tagung, ETH Zürich, February 14, 2019. (with Alexander Weiß)


2018

“Evaluating Deliberative Procedures from a Systemic Perspective. Different Participatory Arenas, Different Deliberative Quality?” - Presentation, Workshop “Political Online Participation and its Effects: Theory, Measurement & Results”, Düsseldorf Institute for Internet and Democracy, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, November 20, 2018. (with Katharina Esau)

“Die vielen Wahrheiten Algorithmen-basierter Interpretation. ‘Die Wahrheit über Postfaktizität‘ dekonstruiert“ [Deconstructing ‘The Truth about Post-Truth’] - Presentation, Workshop “Was bedeutet Interpretieren? Interpretative Verfahren in der Politikforschung”, Leuphana-University Lüneburg, November 16, 2018. (with Sebastian Dumm and Gary S. Schaal)

“Politische Theorie praxisnah lehren: im Spannungsfeld von politischer Neutralität und normativer Positionierung” [Teaching Normative Political Theory at the University Level: How to Balance Normative Modesty and Adopting Political Positions] - Presentation,  Scientific Congress DVPW 2018 „Grenzen der Demokratie / Frontiers of Democracy“, University of Frankfurt, September 25-28, 2018.

“Dystopia, Utopia, Realism? Epistemological Challenges of Evaluating Democratic Quality in a Digitalized World and How to Address Them” - Presentation, Annual Scientific Congress “Internet, Politics, Policy”. University of Oxford, September 20, 2018. (with Gary S. Schaal)

“Empathy, Experience, and Citizen Virtues: Opening the Black Box for Systemic Deliberative Theory with Liberal Irony?” - Presentation,  International Conference of the Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group (PSA): “Participatory Spaces in Perspective”, Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster, London, September 5-7, 2018.

“An Integrated Research Framework for the Analysis of Understandings of Democracy” - Presentation, Writer’s Conference “Measuring Understanding of Democracy: Discussing Solutions for Methodological Fallacies”, Humboldt-University, Berlin,  August 20-21, 2018. (with Gary S. Schaal, Christoph Deppe, Fränze Wilhelm & Kelly Lancaster)

“Inauthentic Political Communication: The Case of Post-Truth Statements. A Framework for Categorizing Hazy Concepts and Evaluating Contemporary Political Developments.” - Presentation, ECPR General Conference 2018, University of Hamburg, August 23, 2018.

“The Integrity of Deliberative Procedures – A Research Agenda for Measuring Deliberative Quality with a Systemic Framework” - Presentation, IPSA World Congress 2018, Brisbane, July 22, 2018. (with Gary S. Schaal)

“Assessing the Embeddedness of Democratic Innovations with a Systemic Framework. A Measurement Approach for Transmissions” - Presentation, Methods Workshop, Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, University of Canberra, July 18, 2018.

“Stabilität, Legitimität und Anerkennung politischer Herrschaft in multikulturellen Kontexten. Das Beispiel der ptolemäischen Dynastie” [Political Stability in Multicultural Societies. Analyzing the Ptolemaic Dynasty] - Presentation, Conference „Texturen von Herrschaft“ (Funding: DAAD), University of Thessaloniki, June 1, 2018. (with Simeon Tzonev)

“Assessing the Embeddedness of Democratic Innovations with a Systemic Framework. A Measurement Approach for Transmissions” - Presentation, ECPR Joint Sessions, University of Nicosia, April 14, 2018. (with Karoline Helbig)

"Normativität in der Hochschullehre" [Norms and Normativity in Teaching Political Science] – Presentation and Public Panel Discussion, Annual Conference of DVPW’s Expert Group on Teaching in Political Science, University of Hamburg, February 26, 2018.

2017

“Measuring Democracy in the Age of Digitalization“  - Presentation, ECPR General Conference 2017,  Oslo, September 7, 2017. (with Gary S. Schaal und Karoline Helbig)

“Measuring Democratic Deliberation. Theoretical Challenges and Methodological Pitfalls“ - Presentation, University Zürich/NCCR Democracy, June 1, 2017. (with Gary S. Schaal and Karoline Helbig)

"Der Beitrag der Politischen Kultur für das Funktionieren demokratischer Systeme aus der Sicht politischer Eliten – ein diskursanalytischer Ansatz“ [Political Culture’s Impact on Democratic Quality – The Political Elite’s Perspective] -Presentation, Conference / DVPW Expert Group for Political Cultural Research „Politische Kulturforschung reloaded“, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, April 5, 2017. (with Gary S. Schaal)

"Kollaboratives Gedankenexperimentieren im Hörsaal“ [Thought Experiments in the Lecture Hall] - Presentation, Annual Conference DVPW/Expert Group on Teaching in Political Science, RWTH Aachen, March 10, 2017.


Selected Invited Talks and Guest Lectures

2022

‘Reconsidering Resonableness and Progress: Democratic Theorizing Beyond the White and Western Gaze’, Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Technical University of Kenya (Kenya), March 17 2022.

‘Reconsidering Resonableness and Progress: Democratic Theorizing Beyond the White and Western Gaze’, Department for Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), March 1 2022.


2021

Radical Proceduralism — Author Meets Critics-Session at the Britain and Ireland Political Thought Association’s Conference, University of Oxford; discussants: Andrew Knops (Birmingham), Rod Dacombe (Kings College London), Sonia Bussu (MMU Manchester).

Book Launch of Radical Proceduralism: Democracy from Philosophical Principles to Political Institutions. Organisers: Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group, Political Studies Association, UK; discussants: Prof Dr. John Parkinson (Maastricht) und Dr. Sonia Bussu (MMU Manchester).

“Democracy, Equality, Knowledge: The impacts of situated knowledge and feminist epistemology on egalitarian politics in the West and beyond.” — Guest lecture, African Women’s Studies Centre, 14 April 2021.

“The How, Why, and What of Measuring Deliberativeness: A Systemic Approach to Nation States’ Deliberative Quality” , International Mathematical Modelling Science Working Group (Erlangen/Cambridge), February 25 2021.

“Epistemic Abstinence and/our Political Activism: The Task of Political Theory Today” -
Guest lecture, University of Nairobi, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies,
21. Januar 2021.


2020

"Theorie(n) digital lehren" [Teaching Political Theory In Digital Spaces]. Workshop, DVPW / German Political Science Association, April 29, 2020. 

"Democratic Proceduralism and Its Limits: From Philosophical Principles to Political Institutions" - Guest lecture, Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, University of Canberra, February 25, 2020.

Reflections: Deliberative Democratic Theory and Theories at the 2020 Deliberative Democracy Summer School, Canberra (Australia) - Presentation, February 7, 2020.


2019

"How to Bridge Theory and Method in Researching Deliberative Democracy: A Systemic Perspective" - Presentation, Heidelberg University, December 17, 2019.
"Warum Postfaktizität (k)ein Problem für demokratische Deliberation ist" [Why post-truth is (not) a problem for democratic deliberation] - Guestlecture,  University of the Fine Arts Münster, July 12 2019.


2018

“Women in Academia. Theory, Perception, Reality – and Action!” - Guest Lecture, University of Dar es Salaam, December 14, 2018.

“Measuring Democratic Deliberation at the Macro Level: Addressing Conceptual and Methodological Challenges with a Systemic Framework” - Guestlecture, Leuphana-University Lüneburg, Centre for the Study of Democracy (ZDEMO), November 13, 2018.

“Verfahren, Rechte, Demokratie. Grenzen prozeduralistischer Legitimitätskonzeptionen” [Procedures, Rights, Democracy. On the Limits of Proceduralism] - Presentation, Berlin Social Science Center, Research Unit „Democracy and Democratization“ (Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Merkel), September 11, 2018.

“The Embeddedness of Deliberative Procedures – Addressing Deliberation and Its Impacts with a Systemic Framework” - Presentation, Expert Workshop on Deliberation and Multi-Stakeholder Platforms. Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, Berlin, September 5, 2018.

“Arguing for Deliberation without Ultimate Justification: Why We Should Decide to Be Deliberative Democrats”  - Seminar Session, Institute for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, August 14, 2018.


2017

"Die epistemische Situation der Bürger unter Bedingungen der Komplexität und ihre Unterstützung der liberalen Demokratie – zwei demokratietheoretische Perspektiven" [Citizen Epistemology and Citizen Support in Complex Societies] - Presentation, University of Heidelberg, November 16, 2017.

“‘Politics of Emotions’ – One Answer to the Current Crisis of Democratic Disengagement?“ - Presentation, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin — Colloquium Center for the History of Emotions, January 24, 2017. (with Gary S. Schaal)


2016

“Vertrauen, Multitude und das Ende der allgemeinen Öffentlichkeit” [Trust, Multitude, and the "General Public Sphere"] - Presentation, scientific conference “Demokratie Revisited. Theorien — Befunde — Perspektiven“, Akademie für Politische Bildung, Tutzing am Starnberger See, October 30, 2016. (with Gary S. Schaal)