Dr. Jannis Julien Grimm is the Director of the Research Group Radical Spaces at the INTERACT Center for Interdisciplinary Peace and Conflict Research at Freie Universität Berlin and an associate researcher at the Institute for the Study of Protest and Social Movements  (ipb) in Berlin. His work focuses on the dynamics of political violence and state repression, the condition and effects of radical politics and (non)violent resistance as well as transnational mobilization processes in response to violence. He holds a PhD in political science from the Berlin Graduate Muslim Cultures and Societies. After his doctoral studies, he served as a co-director of the SAFEResearch project at the University of Gothenburg to develop standards for the conduct of safe and ethical research in conflict contexts. Between 2019-2020, he served as Regional Coordinator of the FES Global Trade Union Project in the Middle East and North Africa. Other previous postings include the Orient Institute Istanbul, the COSMOS Center on Social Movement Studies at SNS Florence, the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Politics at Freie Universität Berlin, and the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, SWP Berlin.

Jannis Grimm is a member of the Berlin University Alliance’s forum on diplomatic resilience. He has conducted field research, amongst others in Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkey and Qatar, and has worked as a consultant for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation, the German Federal Foreign Office, and various human rights organizations, political foundations and social movements.

Jannis Grimm is the co-author of the handbook Safer Field Research in the Social Sciences, published by SAGE in 2020. His monograph Contested Legitimacies: Repression and Revolt in Post-Revolutionary Egypt was published by Amsterdam University Press in early 2022. His forthcoming book with UTB provides the first systematic textbook introduction to protest studies in German language.

Jannis Grimm's work centres on the dynamics of social mobilization and state repression, the interpretive struggles over the legitimacy of political violence as a repertoire of action, and the social and cultural consequences of mass protest and violent events. Empirically, the regional focus of this research is primarily on the Middle East and North Africa. Conceptually, his work aims to further the development of integrated and dynamic methods to analye contentious politics and violence. An additional focus of Jannis' work consists in the development of comprehensive guidance for social scientists on the topic of research ethics as well as the physical and digital risks of field research in conflict areas and authoritarian contexts.

Research interests:

• Social movements and protest
• Political violence and repression
• Middle East and North Africa
• Political Islam
• Protest Event Analysis
• Discourse Analysis
• Mixed Methods
• Research Security / Research Ethics
• Digital Security and Surveillance