Lars Lott

Dr. Lars Lott is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Political Science, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), working at the Chair of Human Rights Politics under Prof. Dr. Katrin Kinzelbach. He is also a Research Associate at the Varieties of Democracy Institute, Gothenburg University, Sweden. From February 2022 to September 2024, he served as a Postdoctoral Researcher in a project on the Academic Freedom Index, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. Previously, he was a Research Fellow and Lecturer at Heidelberg University (2019-2022) and a Research Fellow at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (2018-2019, 2021-2022).

Dr. Lott earned his B.A. in Political Science and Public Law from Heidelberg University in 2015, followed by an M.A. in the same fields in 2017. He completed his PhD in Political Science from Heidelberg University in July 2021 with his thesis titled 'Rethinking Inequality under Autocracy. Parties, Citizens and Preferences,' which investigated how institutional foundations of autocracies determine economic and political inequalities and their effects on citizens.

His research focuses on comparative politics with particular emphasis on authoritarian regimes, conceptualization and measurement of regime transformation episodes, political economy of inequalities, and determinants and consequences of academic freedom. Dr. Lott employs quantitative methods including multilevel models and differences-in-differences estimators for time-series cross-sectional data in his comparative research. His work on the Academic Freedom Index has received coverage by major media outlets including Forbes, Spiegel Online, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Times Higher Education.

Dr. Lott's publications demonstrate a consistent focus on academic freedom, autocratization processes, and political economy under non-democratic regimes. His recent work includes developing the Academic Freedom Index and examining democratic resilience in the 21st century. His research often employs quantitative methods to analyze time-series cross-sectional data, contributing to our understanding of regime dynamics and their societal impacts.

Dr. Lott has been actively involved in teaching at both FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg and Heidelberg University, offering courses on comparative politics, autocratization, and quantitative data analysis. His teaching includes courses such as 'Why do autocracies build skyscrapers?', 'Inequality and the Crisis of Democracy?', and 'Autocratization: Approaches, Methods, Findings of Recent Research' at both BA and MA levels. His research has been supported by funding from the Volkswagen Foundation and the German Research Foundation (DFG).