GPPi researcher takes up Schumpeter Fellowship

GPPi researcher Katrin Kinzelbach is one of three recipients of a Schumpeter Fellowship awarded this year by the Volkswagen Foundation. She took up the post in September and in so doing launched a new research project at GPPi called Political Prisoners and Human Rights Compliance: Why Do Oppressive States Release Dissidents from Jail – and Does it Matter?

The Schumpeter Initiative supports postdoc researchers who display the potential for leadership positions within and outside academia. Schumpeter Fellows receive a five-year grant to tackle complex or high risk research agendas that clearly reveal the need for longer working horizons.

Kinzelbach was awarded €620,500 for her research project, the aim of which is to add to current empirical and theoretical knowledge about human rights compliance by focusing on the release of political prisoners and on the role they play in promoting further human rights reform.

The grant will be used to set up a research group at GPPi, conduct field research, convene expert symposia and develop policy recommendations for decision-makers.

Kinzelbach’s project is part of the new GPPi program on human rights.