Franziska Keller

Principal Investigator

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Qian'ge Liu

PhD student

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Ivan Fomichev

PostDoc

I will join the Institute of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Bern in December 2025 as a postdoctoral researcher on the Swiss National Science Foundation project "Through a Glass, Darkly: How to Study Authoritarian Regimes". I study how political information shapes citizens’ behavior and attitudes in authoritarian regimes, with a regional focus on Russia and comparative interest in other autocracies. I received my PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute in 2025. My work relies on quantitative research methods, including quasi-experimental designs, large-scale social media data, spatial data, and survey experiments. I am also developing expertise in using large language models to extract structured information from text and to study relationships between political actors. More broadly, I am interested in how computational tools can help researchers investigate politics in closed and information-poor environments.I am drawn to this project because it tackles a fundamental question: what kind of knowledge we actually have about authoritarian regimes, and where the limits of that knowledge lie. For me, working on this project offers a rare opportunity to examine how expert networks shape what the outside world believes about these systems, while also developing computational methods to study those networks more systematically.

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Linus Walpen

Research assistant

I have a Bachelor’s degree in communication with a specialization in journalism from the Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften (ZHAW) and a second Bachelor’s degree in Eastern European Studies, History and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Bern. I am currently enrolled in the master’s program in Eastern European Studies and History at the University of Bern. Before joining Franziska Kellers team as a research assistant, I worked as a journalist for various Swiss media, where I covered different topics, such as international news, culture and local politics. Interested in different cultures, I am trying to learn as much as possible about the world.

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Lardina Berisha

​​​​​​​​Research assistant

I am pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences at the University of Bern and work as a research assistant at the Institute for Communication and Media Studies. I am interested in this project because it explores how information about political processes in closed settings is produced and shared. I am pleased to be part of research that combines innovative methods with specialized knowledge.

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Sophia Lindenmann

Research assistant

I am a bachelor student in Eastern European Studies as well as German Language and Literature at the University of Bern. In connection with my major subject, I am particularly interested in examining how (expert) knowledge about authoritarian regimes, such as contemporary Russia, is produced, communicated, and received. Joining Franziska Keller’s team allows me to connect theoretical knowledge with scientific work.

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David Lin

Research assistant

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