Johanna Nickels

Academic Year: 
2020-21
Direction: 
To Yale
Exchange Partners: 
Freie University
Project Title: 
Legislative Punitivity? 25 Years of Criminal Legislation in France and Germany

Johanna Nickels is a graduate in both Law and political science and is currently a PhD candidate in Law at the Freie University of Berlin. Her interdisciplinary research revolves around the (inter-) relationship of punishment and society. In her Ph.D. project, Johanna analyzes the evolution of French and German criminal legislation in order to trace a possible rise in punitivity. Drawing on legal history, comparative law, and social science approaches, she develops an innovative coding tool that allows for systematic analysis and comparison of criminal legislation in both countries over the last 25 years. Johanna’s Ph.D. project is part of an interdisciplinary French-German research project on penal cultures at the Freie University of Berlin, where she has worked as a research assistant for the last three years. She also completed a one-semester research stay at the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and gained professional experience in law firms and the public sector in Germany, Belgium, and Tanzania. Johanna volunteers for a pro bono legal advice project in social security law and is the chairwoman of the youth committee of one of Germany’s largest women’s organizations.