Gesellschaftswissenschaften
Faculty 03

Courses

Summer term 2022

• The Realist tradition in International Relations

Past courses

• International Relations in the Anthropocene

• The Realist tradition in International Relations

• Conflict and communication beyond the nation-state 

• Theoretical perspectives on diplomacy

• Narratives in international relations

• Theory and practice of security policy

Research interests

• International Relations theory
• Diplomacy and theories of diplomacy
• Narratives in the social sciences

Since 03/2018 Research Associate at the Chair of Political Science, Department of Social Sciences, Goethe University (Prof. Gunther Hellmann)

03/2017 – 02/2019 Research Associate at the Chair of International Relations, Political Science Institute, TU Darmstadt (Prof. Markus Lederer)

10/2013 – 09/2016 Master of Arts ‘International Studies/Peace and Conflict Research’, Goethe University Frankfurt/Technische Universität Darmstadt

10/2010 – 09/2013 Bachelor of Arts Political Science, University of Bremen

Conference presentations

• "Diplomacy and the Concept of Person - Rereading Diplomatic Manuals and Memoirs" (ISA Annual Convention, Toronto, Canada, 27 - 30 March 2019)
• "Messages from the Engine Room: Making Sense of Autobiographies by Diplomats" (Third Conference of the New Diplomatic History Network, ‘Bridging Divides’, RIAS, Middelburg, Netherlands 24 -­ 26 October 2018)

Journal Articles

• Miriam Prys-Hansen & Benedikt Franz (2015). Change and Stasis: The Institutionalisation of Developing Country Mitigation in the International Climate Regime, Diplomacy & Statecraft, 26:4, 696-718.
• Benedikt Franz (2022). Narrative time and International Relations, Journal of International Relations and Development, 25:3, 761–783.

Messages from the Engine Room: Making Sense of Autobiographies by Diplomats

That diplomats have been prolific writers of memoirs and autobiographies is well known. Yet, the diplomatic studies literature displays unease when it comes to this type of ‘diplomatic writing’. Often, they are regarded either as ‘data mines’ or their status as such is questioned because they are deemed unreliable sources. My dissertation project starts from this diagnosis and tries to advance our approach to ‘diplomatic memoirs’ by employing more recent discussions in history and literary studies, which help to overcome the stalemate just mentioned. Autobiographies, in this view, are not read as ‘windows to the past’, but rather as a social practice, namely as acts of communications. The aim of the dissertation is, based on a selection of different memoirs, to empirically unearth which kind of speech-acts diplomatic memoirs constitute.