Tanja Boerzel

Prof. Dr. Tanja Boerzel is Professor of Political Science at Freie Universität Berlin, where she heads the European Integration Unit at the Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science. She serves as spokesperson for the Cluster of Excellence 'Contestations of the Liberal Script' and directs the Berlin Center of European Studies. She received her doctorate from the European University Institute in Florence in 1999, with prior academic positions at the Max Planck Project Group, Humboldt University, and University of Heidelberg.

Her research examines European integration dynamics, governance in areas of limited statehood, and contestations of liberal norms. Key themes include:

• EU institutional change and policy diffusion
• Compliance mechanisms in multilevel governance
• Regional organization comparative analysis
• Liberal script resilience amid polarization
• Academic freedom in democratic societies

Publications since 2018 focus on crises of liberal democracy, EU external action efficacy, and hybrid governance models. Her work analyzes geopolitical shifts including the Ukraine war's impact on EU integration and comparative responses to authoritarian challenges. Recent scholarship emphasizes the interplay between regional differentiation and legal compliance within the EU framework.

She leads interdisciplinary teams at the European Integration Unit and the SCRIPTS cluster, coordinating research on the future of liberal governance. Current projects investigate norm contestation in transatlantic relations and institutional adaptation in EU neighborhood policies.