1990 – 1997: Studies of East European History, Political Sciences and Sociology at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.

1998 – 2001: Researcher, Institute for East European Studies, Free University of Berlin, Germany.

2003: Ph.D. in Political Science from the Institute for East European Studies, Free University of Berlin, Germany. Topic: “Global influences and business behaviour. The corporate governance of the Russian oil and gas sector”.

2003 – 2008: Research associate, Institute for World Economics and International Management (IWIM), University of Bremen, Germany.

2005 – 2009: Senior researcher, Koszalin Institute of Comparative European Studies (KICES), Koszalin, Poland.

2006 – 2007: Residential fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington DC, USA.

2008: Residential fellow within the National Scholarship Programme of the Government of the Slovak Republic at the Institute of Sociology, Academy of Science, Bratislava, Slovakia.

Since 2009: Researcher, Department of Politics and Economics, Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen.

2011: Residential fellow within the E.ON Ruhrgas Scholarship Programme at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies (Institutt for Forsvarsstudier, IFS), Oslo, Norway.

Since 2018: Senior researcher, Collaborative Research Centre 1342 “Global Dynamics of Social Policy” at the University of Bremen