Team

Professor Florian Toepfl holds the Chair of Political Communication with a Focus on Eastern Europe and the Post-Soviet Region. He is Principal Investigator of the RUSINFORM project and headed the Emmy Noether Research Group.

Katrin Arkona is office manager at the Chair of Political Communication with a Focus on Eastern Europe and the Post-Soviet Region. She is responsible for administrative and organisational tasks.

Professor Birgit Beumers is affiliated with the Chair of Political Communication with a Focus on Eastern Europe and the Post-Soviet region and teaches by lectureship in the field of film studies as well as in the field of culture and literature of Eastern Europe.

Daria Kravets is a Research Associate and PhD student in the RUSINFORM project. Her research interests are in the areas of political communication, as well as algorithmic bias and computational methods.

Anna Ryzhova is a Research Associate and PhD student in the RUSINFORM project. Political communication is her main research interest. She also takes interest in audience research as well as news critical literacy and trust in media.

Arista Beseler is a Research Associate and PhD student in the RUSINFORM project. Digital communcation is her main research interest, with a focus on alternative media in Germany and audience participation.

Julia Kling is a Research Associate and PhD student in the RUSINFORM project. Her research interests are in the areas of Russia’s Informational influence, as well as transnational audience research and computational methods.

Serge Poliakoff is a Research Associate and PhD student in the RUSINFORM project. His research interests are in the areas of Russia’s Informational influence, dis-/misinformation, propaganda, fake news and computational methods.

Victoria Vziatysheva is a Research Associate and a PhD student. Her research interests are mainly in journalism and digital communication. She also studies the spread of disinformation and its perception by the audience.

Dr. Olena Melnykova-Kurhanova is visiting fellow at the Chair of Political Communication with a focus on Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet region. She conducts research on media literacy and fact-checking, public communication, dissident communication, propaganda, destructive narratives, false news.

Aliia Zamaleeva is a Research Assistant at the Chair of Political Communication with a Focus on Eastern Europe and the Post-Soviet Region. Her research interests include political communication and media influence on audiences.

Olha Soroka is a Research Assistant at the Chair of Political Communication with a Focus on Eastern Europe and the Post-Soviet Region. Her research interests include digital and political communication as well as Russian propaganda.

Nazarii Horban is a Research Assistant at the Chair of Political Communication with a focus on Eastern Europe and the Post-Soviet region. He is interested in Russia's informational influence on Western democracies with a focus on disinformation, propaganda and hate speech.