Dr. Janika Spannagel is a postdoctoral researcher at Freie Universität Berlin at the Cluster of Excellence “Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS)", where she also serves as academic coordinator of the Cluster's Theory Network and as postdoc representative. Her current work focuses on the diffusion and contestation of academic freedom norms. She was a visiting scholar at Stanford University, USA, from September 2023 to March 2024. Dr. Spannagelis also a non-resident fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute, where she co-developed the Academic Freedom Index prior to her position at FU Berlin. Her doctoral thesis at the University of Freiburg dealt with the international protection of human rights defenders in authoritarian contexts. For her work and studies she has received various scholarships and awards, including the 1st prize of the Fundamental Academic Values Award of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in 2022.

Research Interests

• Academic Freedom
• Comparative criminal justice
• Democratization and Autocratization
• Human Rights and Political Repression

Current Research projects at SCRIPTS

Janika Spannagel is part of the project "Science Friction: Patterns, Causes and Effects of Academic Freedom Contestations" as a postdoctoral researcher.

Books

Spannagel, Janika 2023: International attention and the protection of human rights defenders: Campaigning for agents of change, Abingdon: Routledge.

Roberts Lyer, Kirsten / Saliba, Ilyas / Spannagel, Janika 2022: University autonomy decline: Causes, responses, and implications for academic freedom, Abingdon: Routledge.

Journal Articles

Lott, Lars / Spannagel, Janika 2025: "Quality Assessment of the Academic Freedom Index: Strengths, Weaknesses, and How Best to Use It", in: Perspectives on Politics (published online 21 February).

Börzel, Tanja / Spannagel, Janika 2024: "The Globalization of Academic Freedom" (2024), in: Global Constitutionalism (published online 28 November).

Kovács, Kriszta / Spannagel, Janika 2024: "Academic Freedom: Global Variations in Norm Conceptualization, Diffusion, and Contestation – Special Issue Introduction", in: Global Constitutionalism (published online 3 October).

Spannagel, Janika 2024: "The Constitutional Codification of Academic Freedom Over Time and Space", in: Global Constitutionalism (published online 25 September).

Spannagel, Janika 2024: “Die Ambivalenz des Zweifels. Wissenschaftsfeindlichkeit als Gefahrenquelle für die liberale Ordnung” [engl: The ambivalence of doubt - Hostility to science as a source of danger for the liberal order], in: Zeitschrift für Menschenrechte, 17:2, pp. 7–26.

Spannagel, Janika 2023: "Introducing Academic Freedom in Constitutions: a new global dataset, 1789–2022" in: European Political Science (EPS) (published online 14 September).

Spannagel, Janika / Kinzelbach, Katrin 2022: “The Academic Freedom Index and its indicators: Introduction to new global time‑series V‑Dem data”, in: Quantity & Quality (published online 13 October).

Kinzelback, Katrin / Saliba, Ilya / Spannagel, Janika 2021: “Global data on the freedom indispensable for scientific research: Towards a reconciliation of academic reputation and academic freedom”, with Kinzelbach, K. and Saliba, I., in: The International Journal of Human Rights (published online ahead of print 7 December).

Spannagel, Janika 2019: “Ereignisdaten: Irrlichter in der Erfassung menschenrechtlicher Trends” [engl: Events data: Will-o'-wisps in the documentation of human rights trends], in: Zeitschrift für Menschenrechte, 13:1, pp. 7–26.

Book Chapters 

Spannagel, Janika 2025: "Repressalien gegen Menschenrechtsverteidiger:innen im Umfeld der UNO: Monitoring und Maßnahmen" [engl. Reprisals against human rights defenders working with the UN: Monitoring and measures], in: Bielefeldt, H. et al (eds.), Engagiert für die Menschenrechte: Festschrift für Michael Krennerich, Frankfurt: Wochenschau Verlag, pp. 128–147.

Spannagel, Janika 2023: “Menschenrechte als demokratische Praxis: Eine Auseinandersetzung mit Hannah Arendt” [engl. Human rights as democratic practice: Grappling with Hannah Arendt], in: Krennerich, M., Lissowsky, M. and Schendel, M. (eds.), Die Freiheit der Menschenrechte: Festschrift für Heiner Bielefeldt zum 65. Geburtstag, Frankfurt: Wochenschau Verlag, pp. 189–207.

Spannagel, Janika 2020:  “The perks and hazards of data sources on academic freedom: An inventory”, in:  Kinzelbach, K. (ed.), Researching academic freedom - Guidelines and sample case studies, Erlangen: FAU University Press, pp. 175–221.

Spannagel, Janika 2020: “Erklärung zu Menschenrechtsverteidigern (1998)” [engl: Declaration on human rights defenders (1998)], in: Stahl, D. (ed.), Quellen zur Geschichte der Menschenrechte: Bd. 2 Kommentierte Schlüsseltexte, Göttingen: Wallstein, pp. 369–385.

Spannagel, Janika 2020: “Measuring academic freedom across the world: Insights from a new exploratory project”, in: Noorda, S., Scott, P. & Vukasovic, M. (eds.), Bologna process beyond 2020: Fundamental values of the EHEA, Bologna: Bononia University Press, pp. 27–33.

Spannagel, Janika / Kinzelbach, Katrin 2018: “New ways to address an old problem: Political repression”, in: Rodríguez-Garavito, C. & Gomez, K. (eds.), Rising to the populist challenge, Bogotá: Dejusticia, pp. 185–196.

Datasets

“Academic Freedom in Constitutions (AFC) Dataset (1789–2022)” (2023), Harvard Dataverse, V2.

"HRD-Amnesty Dataset (1961–2018)" (2023), Harvard Dataverse, V1.

"HRD-UNCases Dataset (2000–2016)" (2023), Harvard Dataverse, V1.

"Academic freedom indicators (v2cafres, v2cafexch, v2cainsaut, v2casurv, v2cacritic)" (2020) with Kinzelbach, K., Saliba, I. and the V-Dem team, V-Dem Dataset (V10–).

"International legal commitment to academic freedom under ICESCR (v2caacadfree)" (2020) with Kinzelbach, K. and Polakiewicz, A., V-Dem Dataset (V10–).

"Existence of universities (v2cauni)" (2020) with Polakiewicz, A., V-Dem Dataset (V10–).

Other Publications

Spannagel, Janika 2025: International Attention and the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, podcast interview for The External by the EU-RENEW network. https://open.spotify.com/episode/62f6a3Yqh7XtXPspQXj6sZ.

Spannagel, Janika 2025: Wie die US-Regierung unter Trump die Wissenschaftsfreiheit einschränkt, live radio interview on radioeins/rbb “Die Profis”. https://www.radioeins.de/programm/sendungen/die_profis/archivierte_sendungen/beitraege/wie-die-us-regierung-unter-trump-die-wissenschaftsfreiheit-einsc.html.

Pelke, Lars / Spannagel, Janika 2023: "Quality assessment of the Academic Freedom Index: Strengths, weaknesses, and how best to use it" with Pelke, L., University of Gothenburg, V-Dem Working Papers series.

Spannagel, Janika 2023: "Rethinking campaigns on human rights defenders", OpenGlobalRights. 

Spannagel, Janika 2023: "Wissenschaftsfreiheit: Wenn Forschung angegriffen wird", interview in Exzellent erklärt Podcast.

Kinzelbach, Katrin / Lindberg, Staffan / Pelke, Lars / Spannagel, Janika 2023: “Academic Freedom Index – 2023 Update”, Erlangen: FAU & V-Dem.

Spannagel, Janika 2022: “Wie hängen Hochschulautonomie und Wissenschaftsfreiheit zusammen?”, interview with Kercher, J.: Wissenschaft weltoffen. 

Kinzelbach, Katrin / Pelke, Lars / Spannagel, Janika 2022: “Wissenschaftsfreiheit weltweit und internationale akademische Mobilität in Deutschland: Der Academic Freedom Index als Instrument für Hochschulforschung und Hochschulpraxis”, in: DAAD Forschung Kompakt, 6, p. 1-14.

Kinzelbach, Katrin / Spannagel, Janika 2021: “Die Vermessung von Wissenschaftsfreiheit - Ergebnisse und Hintergründe des Academic Freedom Index” [engl: Assessing academic freedom – Results and background of the Academic Freedom Index] (2021), with Kinzelbach, K., in: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 71:46, pp. 34–41.

Spannagel, Janika 2021: “A perfect shitstorm: Scientists in the pandemic”, GPPi online magazine.

Saliba, Ilyas / Spannagel, Janika / Benner, T. 2021: “COVID-19 and academic freedom – What’s the connection? (Introduction)”, GPPi online magazine.

Kinzelbach, Katrin / Saliba, Ilyas / Spannagel, Janika / Quinn, Rober 2021: “Free universities - Putting the Academic Freedom Index into action”, Berlin: GPPi. 

Spannagel, Janika 2021: “UN action on reprisals: Towards greater impact. A quantitative analysis of the scope and impact of UN action on intimidation and reprisals through the lens of the Secretary-General’s annual reports”, Geneva: ISHR.

Spannagel, Janika / Saliba, Ilyas 2021: “The Academic Freedom Index: A powerful instrument for policy and practice”, in: European University Association Expert Voices.

Spannagel, Janika / Kinzelbach, Katrin / Saliba, Ilyas 2020: “The Academic Freedom Index and other new indicators relating to academic space: An introduction”, University of Gothenburg, V-Dem Users’ Working Papers series.

Spannagel, Janika 2019: “The Effectiveness of individual casework on human rights defenders: An empirical study of the UN Special Procedure cases 2004–2015”, University of York, Human Rights Defender Hub Working Papers series.

Spannagel, Janika 2017: “Chasing shadows: A quantitative analysis of the scope and impact of UN communications on human rights defenders (2000–2016)”, Berlin: GPPi.