Cathleen Kantner

Prof. Dr. Cathleen Kantner serves as Head of Sowi III at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Stuttgart, where she holds a professorship in International Relations and European Integration since 2010. Her academic leadership extends to her role as former Prorektorin for Teaching and Further Education (2015-2018) and her ongoing contributions to research projects like CRETA (Centrum für reflektierte Textanalyse) and Clarin-D.

Her educational background includes:

• Doctorate (Dr. phil.) from Humboldt University Berlin (2002) with dissertation "Transnationale Öffentlichkeit und die Demokratiefähigkeit der Europäischen Union"
• Habilitation in Political Science at Freie Universität Berlin (2010)

Prof. Kantner's research spans International Relations theory, particularly constructivist approaches, European integration processes, and the formation of European identity. Her methodological expertise combines transnational comparative quantitative and qualitative media content analysis with corpus linguistic methods of text analysis. She investigates how collective identities emerge in transnational political communication, with special focus on European foreign, security and defense policy debates. Her work bridges traditional political theory with innovative digital humanities approaches.

Her extensive publication record demonstrates consistent engagement with the evolving dynamics of European public spheres and the application of computational methods to political science research. Recent work shows increasing integration of transformer-based approaches with traditional political theory frameworks, particularly in analyzing speech acts in political communication.

Her notable recognitions include:

• Marie-Curie-Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS) at the European University Institute Florence (2006/07 and 2009/10)
• Vincent Wright Fellow in Comparative Politics at RSCAS of the European University Institute in Florence (2004-2005)

Prof. Kantner has held significant administrative roles including Prorektorin for Teaching and Further Education at University of Stuttgart (2015-2018), Studiendekanin and Deputy Director of the Institute for Social Sciences (2012-2015), and leadership positions in major research initiatives. She has secured substantial research funding for projects at the intersection of digital humanities and political science, serving as co-applicant for the successful BMBF research center CRETA since 2015 and as deputy chair of the Clarin-D project since 2014.

She leads the CRETA research center (Centrum für reflektierte Textanalyse), which develops and applies corpus linguistic methods for social science research, and participates in the Clarin-D project focusing on content analysis methods in social sciences, specifically heading the Clarin-D Facharbeitsgemeinschaft 7 "Inhaltsanalytische Methoden in den Sozialwissenschaften".