Dr. Wiebke Drews

Welcome! 

I am a Scientific Associate at Rudolfovo - Science and Technology Centre Novo Mesto (Slovenia) working at the Centre for Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property (CETIP) and a Research Affiliate at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich (Germany) in the research project SPARTA. I earned my PhD from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, in 2020.

My research lies at the intersection of technology and politics, focusing on how digital communication environments shape public spheres. The guiding theme that runs through all my work is the digital - in two senses:

First, digital publics: how communication emerges, circulates, and matters, particularly on social media.

Second, digital methods: how computational tools - from Natural Language Processing (NLP) to network analysis - can be used to make the dynamics, content, and actors of communication visible, measurable, and comparable.

Building on my work in political communication, I increasingly apply these approaches to the study of emerging technologies. I currently lead the CSSInnoRadar project, co-funded by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS) from 2026–2029 with €194,310. The project develops computational approaches to map how emerging technologies (e.g., quantum technologies) are discussed by firms and research institutions, policy-makers, and the public, and how these narratives may shape anticipatory innovation governance.

My work has been published in German Politics, Frontiers, Political Research Exchange, and PLoS ONE. 

In addition, I serve as a member of the Steering Committee of the ECPR Standing Group on Internet & Politics. I have also served as co-director of euandi2021, a Voting Advice Apllication (VAA) for the 2021 German federal election, and as a member of the advisory board at the Schader Foundation.

I am always happy to connect and welcome messages about potential collaborations, exchange of expertise, or any shared interests.