(Post-)Graduate Support at its Best!

Who are we?

We are a group of researchers and practitioners from different disciplinary backgrounds who share an interest in researching the social and political foundations of global financial markets. Our research interests cover different empirical topics, from central banking, financialization, and green finance to asset-manager capitalism, capital market development, and the evolution of cashless payments. Our theoretical approach to contemporary finances relies on various concepts and perspectives, mostly taken from sociology and political economy, such as those of structural power, financial infrastructures, and monetary and financial subordination. What these different approaches have in common is that beyond mathematical abstracts they explore finance as a social phenomenon.

What is the goal of our Grade initiative?

Since 2021, we have created a space for discussing research that fosters productive and ongoing exchange. Our goal is to bring together the group members' diverse research expertise as well as to create a shared knowledge base that combines academic and professional-technical knowledge on contemporary finance.

Every semester, we organize closed-door meetings in which initiative members can present their work in a professional, friendly, and non-competitive environment and receive valuable and constructive feedback on their ongoing research. We also invite scholars conducting relevant and engaging research within our field to give public lectures or organise workshops open to the broader intellectual community.

If you are interested in our current and future activities, want to know more about them or want to join our initiative, please contact Robin Jaspert.

We look forward to welcoming new members and including those interested in our internal mailing list!  

Members

Robin Jaspert – Goethe-Universität, FB03
Critical political economy of state expenditures, monetary policies and “green” finance

Guadalupe Moreno – Goethe-Universität, FB03
Cashing in on cashless. Different pathways to cashless payments in the global south

Johannes Petry – Goethe-Universität, FB03
State Cap Finance Project

Barbara Brandl – Goethe-Universität, FB03
Economic Sociology and Political Economy

Niklas Kullick – Goethe-Universität, FB03
Cultural Economy Perspective on Finance, Tech and Money

Kamila Duraj – Goethe-Universität, FB02
Essays in Household Finance

Konstantin Dulin – Goethe-Universität, FB03
The Politics of the Financialization of Higher Education

Vincent Lindner – Goethe-Universität, FB02
Political Economy, Economic and Monetary Union.

Lilith Dieterich – Goethe-Universität, FB03
Political Economy, Financial Sociology, Marxist Economics

Malte Simon - Goethe-Universität, FB03
ESG - Climate change and environmental degradation in credit risk management

Roxana Ehlke - JLU Giessen
Dynamics of Security. Forms of Securitization in Historical Perspective, Financial Sanctions and the Post-Soviet Space.

Tim Salzer – JLU Gießen
The politics of the price: Economic Expertise and the government of economic life in early Republican China

Marek Jessen – JLU Gießen / ZEVEI Centre Responsible Digitality
Digital Euro and Normativity  

Ruben Kremers – JGU Mainz
Hipster Finance - The Everyday Politics of Neobanks

Carola Westermeier – JLU Gießen & TU Darmstadt
Intersections of economic sociology, international political economy, and (critical) security studies

Jan Fichtner - University Witten / Herdecke
Climate change and global finance at the crossroads: Policy challenges, politico-economic dynamics, and sustainable transformation

Simon Schairer – University Witten/Herdecke
Carbon evasion: How offshore finance and shadow banking hamper the green transition and increase climate-related systemic risk”

Patrick Jahnke – equity portfolio manager & independent researcher
Asset management industry, asset concentration, changes in shareholder ownership structures and corporate governance