Nina Sophia Steffen

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 nina.steffen@unifr.ch
 +41 26 300 7794
 https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5524-5881

Biografie

Nina Steffen joined the University of Fribourg as a Diploma Assistant and PhD Candidate in September 2026 in the European Studies and Slavic Studies Department. She obtained her Master’s degree in Political Science and Eastern European History at the University of Zurich and Charles University in Prague, with a dissertation on the persuasive effects of pro-Russian propaganda disseminated through social media influencers on Western audiences.

Her doctoral thesis will build on this research and focus on social media-based Russian disinformation as a transnational strategy of digital authoritarianism, examining how such propaganda adapts across national contexts and shapes illiberal attitudes and perceptions of democratic institutions in Europe and the United States. She is especially interested in the gendered dimensions of Russian propaganda, including the strategic use of anti-gender and “traditional values” narratives, as well as their intersections with neocolonial and postcolonial debates on power, identity, and foreign influence. Her doctoral thesis will be supervised by Professor Jan Matti Dollbaum.

Nina is also on the board of the NGO “Libereco – Partnership for Human Rights” which provides information about human rights violations, supports victims of war and violence, engages in transcultural human rights education, and provides humanitarian assistance including psycho-social support in Belarus and Ukraine.