Short
bio
Dr. Kressen Thyen is a political sociologist and researcher in the international EXTRACTIVISM.de research network at the University of Kassel. Her work focuses on global and social inequalities, protest movements, land and resource conflicts, as well as development strategies and relations of power in the Maghreb. Previously, she was a research associate in Collaborative Research Centre 1342 “Global Dynamics of Social Policy” at the University of Bremen and at the GIGA Institute for Middle East Studies. She received her PhD from the University of Tübingen in 2018 with a dissertation on youth protests and conflicts over legitimacy in the context of the Arab Uprisings. As a visiting researcher, Kressen Thyen conducted research at the American University in Cairo, the Merian Center for Advanced Research in the Maghreb in Tunis, Université Hassan II de Casablanca, Université Mohamed V de Rabat, and the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. She also worked in academic and higher education management at the École d’Économie et de Gouvernance de Rabat and as a consultant for UNESCO in Paris.
Short
bio
Dr. Kressen Thyen is a political sociologist and researcher in the international EXTRACTIVISM.de research network at the University of Kassel. Her work focuses on global and social inequalities, protest movements, land and resource conflicts, as well as development strategies and relations of power in the Maghreb. Previously, she was a research associate in Collaborative Research Centre 1342 “Global Dynamics of Social Policy” at the University of Bremen and at the GIGA Institute for Middle East Studies. She received her PhD from the University of Tübingen in 2018 with a dissertation on youth protests and conflicts over legitimacy in the context of the Arab Uprisings. As a visiting researcher, Kressen Thyen conducted research at the American University in Cairo, the Merian Center for Advanced Research in the Maghreb in Tunis, Université Hassan II de Casablanca, Université Mohamed V de Rabat, and the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. She also worked in academic and higher education management at the École d’Économie et de Gouvernance de Rabat and as a consultant for UNESCO in Paris.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Global and social inequalities
- Protest movements
- Land and resource conflicts
- Development policy
- Agrarian extractivism
- Power relations in the Maghreb
Regional Focus
- Maghreb
- Europe
Recent Publications
- Thyen, K. (i.E.). (2026). Resource nationalism, state extractivism, and protest in the Maghreb. In: Extractivism in the Maghreb, Hrsg. Hannes Warnecke-Berger und Rachid Ouaissa, London: Routledge.
- Karadag, R., Penteado, S., Thyen, K., Wolkenhauer, A.(2025): Decolonization, socialism, and development: The fate of agrarian reform in Africa. In: Andreas Heinrich, Ewa Kaminska-Visser, Heiko Pleines, Tobias ten Brink (Hrsg.): Generosity of Social Policies in Socialist and Post-Socialist States, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Thyen, K. (2023). Grenzen der Ressourcensouveränität: Extraktivismus und Proteste in Nordafrika. In: Eine gerechte Weltwirtschaftsordnung? Die “New International Economic Order” und die Zukunft der Süd-Nord-Beziehungen. (Hrsg.) Daniel Fuchs und Alex Veit, Bielefeld: Transcript.
- Thyen, Kressen: Schlichte, Klaus (2021). Appropriating the Colonial State: The Emergence of Social Insurances in Tunisia and Uganda. In: Causal mechanisms in the development of social insurance systems. (Hrsg.). Johanna Kuhlmann und Frank Nullmeier, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Thyen, K. (2020). Youth Activism and Political Parties. In: The Routledge Handbook of Political Parties in the Middle East and North Africa. (Hrsg.) Francesco Cavatorta, Lise Storm und Valeria Resta, New York: Routledge
Saara I., Thyen, K. (2019). Determinanten von Politischem Vertrauen in Autokratien. In: Legitimation und Legitimität in Vergleichender Perspektiv. (Hrsg.). Claudia Wiesner und Phillip Harfst. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
- Karadag, R., Thyen, K., Wolkenhauer, A., Penteado, S., Schlichte, K. (i.E.). (2026). Land conflicts and land meanings in contemporary Africa, Global Studies Quarterly, Special issue “Grounding IR: The Land Question in International Politics“.
- Thyen, K., Wolkenhauer, A., (2026). What’s ‘rural’ in rural development? Interrogating internationalised visions for the African countryside. Journal of International Relations and Development. Online first. . ACCESS ARTICLE.
- Prigge, K. Thyen, K., (2025). Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Maghreb: A Materialist Critique. Middle East Critique, 1–19. Online first. ACCESS ARTICLE
- Thyen, K., Karadag, R. (2021). Between affordable welfare and affordable food: Internationalized food subsidy reform in Egypt and Tunisia. Social Policy & Administration, 55(6), 1050-1065.
Thyen, K. (2018): Managing Contention: Divergent Government Responses to Youth Protests in the Arab World. Middle East Law and Governance, 10(1), 91–116. r
Thyen, K. Gerschewski, J. (2018). Legitimacy and protest under authoritarianism: Explaining student mobilization in Egypt and Morocco during the Arab uprisings. Democratization, 25(1), 38–57.
Thyen, K. (2017). Promising democracy, legitimizing autocracy? Perceptions of regime democraticness among university students in Morocco. Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft, 11(2), 325–347.
Thyen, K. (2026). Natalie Wenzell Letsa: The Autocratic Voter: Partisanship and Political Socialisation under Dictatorship. Buchrezension, Portal für Politikwissenschaft.
Thyen, K., Josua, M.(2023). Tunesiens Präsident Kais Saied: vom Hoffnungsträger zum Autokraten. GIGA Focus Nahost, 4/2023, Hamburg: GIGA.
Thyen, K. (2019). Tunesiens junge Demokratie: Zwischen Sozialprotesten und
Strukturanpassung. GIGA Focus Nahost, 2/2019, Hamburg: GIGA.
Thyen, K. (2018). Why it matters what we do: Arab citizens’ perceptions of the European Union after the 2011 uprisings. GIGA Working Paper, No. 312, March 2018, Hamburg: GIGA
Thyen, K. (2016). Ursachen und Hintergründe der Krisen und Umbrüche in der arabischen Welt. Beitrag im Online-Dossier “Innerstaatliche Konflikte”, Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung (2., aktualisierte Version von 2015).