Prof. Dr. Christiane Eilders is Scientific Director of the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS). Together with Prof. Dr. Tim A. Majchrzack, she is responsible for the institute’s academic research and forms the Executive Board along with him and the Executive Director, Michael Paul.
At CAIS, her research focuses on the causes and consequences of polarization in digital media environments. Her expertise lies in the areas of online participation, online deliberation, and public opinion formation. Previously, she had held the position of Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf since 2011. Over the course of her academic career, Christiane Eilders also conducted research as a professor at the University of Augsburg and as a research associate at the Hans Bredow Institute in Hamburg and the Social Science Research Center Berlin.
Curriculum vitae
- Since 04/2011 with W2 professorship for Communication and Media Studies at the Heinrich-Heine-University (HHU) Düsseldorf
- From 05/2007 to 03/2011 W2 professorship in Communication Studies at the University of Augsburg
- 05/2006 Habilitation at the Free University of Berlin (Topic: Structures of Public Opinion Formation in the National Quality Press)
- 03/2001-09/2002 Habilitation fellowship of the DFG, based at the Social Science Research Center Berlin, including a research stay in San Diego, USA January 2002 to March 2002.
- 01/1996-12/2000 Research assistant at the Social Science Research Center Berlin, Department “Public Sphere and Social Movements
- 02/1996 Doctorate (Dr. Phil.) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (Topic: On the role of news factors in the use and processing of political information)
- 1990-1995 Doctoral studies in communication science
- 1983-1989 Studied Communication Science at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (subsidiary subjects: American Studies, Market and Advertising Psychology)
- She is a member of the DFG’s Review Board for the Social Sciences, on the Board of Trustees of the Grimme Research College and the Democracy Foundation of the University of Cologne. Since 2012, she has been co-editor of the journal Publizistik.
- Since 2019, she has been spokesperson of the Düsseldorf Institute for Internet and Democracy at the HHU. in 2019 to 2023, she was chair of the advisory board of the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin. From 2012 to 2020, she was a member of the scientific advisory board of the Federal Agency for Civic Education.
- She has been a visiting scholar at the University of Zurich, at the FU Berlin, at Hacettepe University in Ankara, as well as at the University of Southern California in San Diego, USA.