Maximilian Hartl

Maximilian Hartl serves as a Research Fellow in the Department of Politics at the Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS Regensburg) since June 2025 and is an active doctoral candidate investigating the emergence and dissemination of political narratives around Foreign Agent Laws.

His academic credentials include:

• Master of Arts in Democracy Studies from the University of Regensburg (2025), with thesis: "Construction and Problems of Imperial Identity: Performance of Ontological Narratives to Legitimise the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in 2022".
• Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Regensburg (2021).

Research priorities emphasize political narrative formation in Russian foreign policy, particularly regarding imperial legitimation during the Ukraine invasion and Foreign Agent Law discourse. Fieldwork in the South Caucasus during a Friedrich Ebert Foundation internship informs his regional expertise. At IOS Regensburg, he contributes to the KonKoop project and Länderanalysen (Country Analyses), supporting editorial operations for the Russian- and Ukrainian Analytical Digest journals. Previously, he assisted editorial teams at Denkraum Ukraine (University of Regensburg) and participated in Länderanalysen from 2021–2024.

No scientific awards, student advisement roles, or grant funding are documented in available materials.