Laura Stritzke
Laura Stritzke is a Doctoral Researcher within the Research Group Radicalization, Terrorism, and Extremism Prevention at PRIF's Research Department Transnational Politics and part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network VORTEX. In her dissertation project, she investigates the challenges of prevention work between support and control and how these are negotiated.
Press photo
CV
| seit 2023
PhD student in the EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network VORTEX at PRIF
| 2023
M.Sc. Psychology at the University of Osnabrück
| 2023
Intern at the Institute for Qualitative Social Research at the Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna
| 2022–2023
Research assistant at the Christian Michelsen Institute Bergen, Norway
| 2022
Scholarship holder of the Global Engagement Scholarship Vacasol
| 2022
Erasmus+ stay at the University of Bergen, Norway
| 2021–2022
Intern and guest student at the Institute for Social Psychology at the Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna
| 2020
B.Sc. Psychology at the University of Osnabrück
| 2019
Scholarship holder of Lower Saxony
| 2018–2022
Research assistant at the Institute of Psychology at the University of Osnabrück
PhD Project
This dissertation challenges a common assumption: that support and control are opposites. In practice, the two often overlap wherever norms are reinforced, such as in the prevention of violent extremism (P/CVE). This overlap has sparked debates over the securitization of P/CVE: while some criticize the push of security measures into pedagogical and social work, others acknowledge the entanglement of support and control as inherent to it. The dissertation takes up this debate and develops a support-control framework to examine how the two combine in prevention practice. It distinguishes four types of prevention that combine high or low degrees of control with high or low degrees of support. This framework offers a new lens on conventional prevention models: rather than sorting measures only by their aim and timing, it also captures how they are implemented and what effects they produce. Using a comparative case study design, the dissertation examines prevention in schools (support-oriented settings) and prisons (control-oriented settings), drawing on interviews with practitioners to trace how different combinations of support and control emerge. It explores how practitioners negotiate opportunities and needs and ultimately implement these programmes across different contexts. Part of the EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie doctoral network VORTEX, it offers insight into the design and delivery of prevention and thus holds both theoretical and practical relevance.
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Discussion about research design and methodology of radicalization research
Publications
- Recognizing the Political in Acts of Violence
| 2026
Stritzke, Laura (2026): Recognizing the Political in Acts of Violence. Reflections on Current Approaches, VORTEX Blog.
Publication - Between Diffuse Motives and Mental Health – Debates Following Recent Attacks in Germany
| 2025
Stritzke, Laura; Stephanblome, Isabelle (2025): Between Diffuse Motives and Mental Health – Debates Following Recent Attacks in Germany, VORTEX Blog.
Publication - Zwischen diffusen Motivlagen und mentaler Gesundheit – Die Debatten nach den jüngsten Anschlagsereignissen
| 2025
Stephanblome, Isabelle; Stritzke, Laura (2025): Zwischen diffusen Motivlagen und mentaler Gesundheit – Die Debatten nach den jüngsten Anschlagsereignissen, PRIF Blog.
Publication - Punching the World – Developmental Psychological Perspectives on Trajectories of Radicalization
| 2025
Stritzke, Laura (2025): Punching the World – Developmental Psychological Perspectives on Trajectories of Radicalization, VORTEX.
Publication - “Everything was Great”
| 2025
Stritzke, Laura (2025): “Everything was Great”. Making the Most out of Feedback Methods in Universal/Selective Prevention Contexts for Monitoring, VORTEX Blog.
Publication - Interview with a “Grandma against the Right” Activist
| 2024
Stritzke, Laura (2024): Interview with a “Grandma against the Right” Activist, VORTEX Blog.
Publication - Multi-agency Approaches in Prevention: Opportunities and Challenges
| 2024
Stritzke, Laura (2024): Multi-agency Approaches in Prevention: Opportunities and Challenges, VORTEX Blog.
Publication - Tensions between Security and Support in P/CVE
| 2024
Stritzke, Laura (2024): Tensions between Security and Support in P/CVE, VORTEX Blog.
Publication - What Do We Mean When Speaking about “Radicalization”? – Reflections on the Use of a Contested Term
| 2024
Stritzke, Laura (2024): What Do We Mean When Speaking about “Radicalization”? – Reflections on the Use of a Contested Term, VORTEX Blog.
Publication
Further Activities
- Since 2026: Member of the German Psychological Society and part of the Interest Group on the Promotion of Democracy
- Part of the Organizing Team of the German Political Psychology Network
- Navigating Support and Control in Extremism Prevention: Practitioner Identities and Dilemmas, September 8–11, 2026, European Consortium For Political Research (ECPR) General Conference, Jagiellonian University (Kraków).
- Beyond Opposite Responses to Norm-Violation A Typology of Social Control and Support, July 16–19, 2026, ISPP Annual Meeting, Newcastle University.
- Navigating Support and Control in Extremism Prevention: Practitioner Perspectives Across Institutional Contexts, September 25–26, 2025, 7th Nordic Conference on Violent Extremism 2025, Aarhus (Denmark).
- Without Trust, Nothing Works: Re-Centering Trust in PCVE Efforts (together with Lotta Rahlf and Violette Mens), September 25–26, 2025, 7th Nordic Conference on Violent Extremism 2025, Aarhus (Denmark).
- The primary and secondary prevention conundrum: the ambivalences of the intersection between universal and selective prevention, June 16–19, 2024, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie Congress, Vienna.
- Knowing How We Feel: Perceived Collective and Group-Based Emotions in Times of War (together with Maor Shani), October 22, 2023, annual conference of the Political Studies Association Ireland 2023, Belfast. Further information.
- Symposium of the Forum Friedenspsychologie 2024, May 16–17, 2024, Heraklio (Greece). Further information.
- Honorable Mention by the Peace Psychology Form 2024. Further information.