Maren Wagner

Maren Wagner is Head of Doctoral Programs and Talent Management at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) since 2020. She serves as Equal Opportunities Officer at GIGA since 2016 and has held Acting Academic Director roles for the GIGA Doctoral Programme in multiple periods. Her work bridges academic administration with research in international relations and area studies.

• PhD in Communication Studies (University of Hamburg, 2015)
• Doctoral studies at Hamburg International Graduate School for Regional Powers (2010-2013)
• Visiting Researcher at Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (2012)

Her research focuses on regional institutions and integration in East and Southeast Asia, with particular emphasis on the concept of emergence in IR theory and its intersection with critical realism and philosophy of science. Through publications like her 2016 monograph on social emergence and 2013 GIGA Focus article on ASEAN+6, she analyzes institutional dynamics and regional cooperation frameworks in Asia-Pacific contexts.

She actively engages in academic knowledge transfer, delivering lectures at institutions like UNU-MERIT (2021, 2022) on discourse analysis in institutional formation. Wagner's career combines administrative leadership with empirical research on topics ranging from Indonesian media integration (2011) to contemporary political challenges in regional governance.