Dr. Viola Dombrowski

Researcher

Dr. Viola Dombrowski is Researcher at PRIF’s Research Depart­ment Local Peace Orders and member of the Research Group Radicali­zation, Terrorism, and Extre­mism Prevention. Her research interests focus on the nexus of gender and the far right, and further include far-right identity politics, qualitative research methods and technology-facilitated IPV.

Viola Dombrowski
dombrowski(at)prif.org
 Press photo

CV

| since 2026
Researcher at PRIF

| 2026–2027
Incoming Senior Fellow of the Elisabeth-List-Fellowship for Gender Research at the University of Graz

| 2025–2026
Research Associate at the Institutes for Sociology and Pedagogy, University of Koblenz

| 2024–2025
Lecturer at the Institute für Pedagogy, University of Koblenz

| 2024
Doctorate (Dr. phil) in Sociology, University of Koblenz

| 2017–2023
Research Assistant at the Institute for Sociology, University of Koblenz

| 2017
Diplom (M.A.) in Educational Science, Psychology and Sociology, University of Koblenz

Publications

  • Contesting the meaning of gender
    | 2022
    Hajek, Katharina; Dombrowski, Viola (2022): Contesting the meaning of gender. Right-wing populism and gender in Germany, Women‘s Studies International Forum: 95, 102633. DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2022.102633
  • Zwischen Femonationalismus und Anti-Genderismus
    | 2021
    Dombrowski, Viola; Hajek, Katharina (2021): Zwischen Femonationalismus und Anti-Genderismus. Rechtspopulistische Geschlechterpolitiken in Deutschland, GENDER, Sonderheft „Antifeministische Mobilisierungen“, 42–58. DOI: 10.25595/2115

  • Pandemie und Risiko
    | 2023
    Dombrowski, Viola; Hannappel, Marc; Schmelzeisen, Lukas (2023): Pandemie und Risiko. Genese und Transformation eines Risikodiskurses im Kontext der öffentlichen Debatte zu den Coronamaßnahmen im Frühjahr 2020, in: Frommeld, Debora; Gerhards, Helene; Weber, Karsten (eds), Wiesbaden: Springer, 331–356. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-658-39129-4_12

  • Volk oder Feind? – Ausgrenzung und Aneignung im Online-Diskurs der AfD
    | 2025
    Dombrowski, Viola (2025): Volk oder Feind? – Ausgrenzung und Aneignung im Online-Diskurs der AfD, Bielefeld: Transcript. DOI: 10.14361/9783839413579

  • Far-right Feminists? The exploitation of women’s rights and what’s behind it
    | 2024
    Dombrowski, Viola (2024): Far-right Feminists? The exploitation of women’s rights and what’s behind it, The Progressive Post: 24: Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), 42–51 (Op-Ed).
    Publication

Further Activities

Committee activities:

  • 2020–2022: Senate Committee for Equal Oppor­tunities, University of Koblenz

Memberships:

  • German Socio­logical Asso­ciation (DGS), AK Socio­logy of the Far Right
  • European Socio­logical Associa­tion (ESA), RN32 Political Socio­logy & RN33 Women's and Gender Studies
  • Standing Group Extremism & Demo­cracy of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR)

Selection:

| 2025
Digitale Partnerschafts­gewalt – Sozial­wissenschaft­liche Forschung im Überblick. Forum KI 2025: Digitale Gewalt, Criminalistics Institute of the BKA, Wies­baden, with Benjamin Rampp, Marion Müller & Nicole Zillien.

| 2024
Culture War – The post-race ›Race War‹ narrative of the German Populist Radical Right. 16th ESA Conference, Porto.
Unlikely Allies – Exploring migrant involve­ment in radical right populism in Germany: A case study if the ›Neu­deutsche Alternative‹. ECPR General Conference 2024, Dublin.

| 2023
Constructing the Collective – Antagonisms and Ambi­valences in the Alternative for Germany’s Configuration of the People. XX ISA World Congress of Sociology, Melbourne.
Modes of Demarcation: Gendered and Sexualized Mechanisms of In- and Exclusion in German Right-Wing Populism. XX ISA World Congress of Sociology, Melbourne.
Wissens­soziologische Diskurs­analyse und Twitter – Ein Beispiel zur Integration technisierter Erhebungs­verfahren. Die Diskursive Konstruk­tion von Wirklich­keit V, University of Augsburg. 

| 2020
Between Femo­nationalism & Anti-Genderism. Right-Wing Populist Gender Politics in Germany. Populism, Gender and Feminist Politics, Florence, with Katharina Hajek. (online)
Epidemie, Pandemie, Infodemie – Zur Genese eines Risiko­diskurses. 40th DGS Congress, Berlin, with Marc Hannappel, Oul Han, Matthias Kullbach & Lukas Schmelzeisen. (online)
Komplexe Phänomene erfordern komplexe Methodo­logien – Der Mehrwert eines ›Explanatory Sequential Designs‹ am Beispiel des massen­medialen Diskurses zur COVID-19-Pandemie in Deutsch­land. 40th DGS Congress, Section Methods of Qualitative Social Research, Berlin, with Marc Hannappel, Oul Han, Matthias Kullbach & Lukas Schmelzeisen. (online)
The effects of Corona on the German public discourse in online news­papers and Twitter and its mediated develop­ment over 2019-2020. 14th General Conference, ECPR, Innsbruck, with Marc Hannappel, Oul Han, Matthias Kullbach & Lukas Schmelz­eisen. (online)

Moderation & Organization:

| 2025
Demokratie­feindliche Kräfte an der Universität? AAE, Uni­versity of Koblenz & Die Junge Akademie. Guests: Dominik Enders, Joschka Selinger & Dr. Christoph Haker

| 2022
Gender Studies - So what?! Perspek­tiven, Potentiale, Heraus­forderungen. Moderation of the panel discussion on the intro­duction of the Gender Studies certificate. University of Koblenz-Landau. Guests: Dr. Reyhan Şahin, Dr. Johanna Leinius, Prof. Dr. Ina Kerner

| 2019
100 Jahre Frauenwahlrecht. – Jubiläum eines Versprechens. Organization and moderation of the panel discussion. University of Koblenz-Landau. Guests: Anne Spiegel, Emine Aslan, Dr. Katharina Hajek

| 2025
University of Koblenz doctoral prize