Antonia Thies

Antonia Thies

Antonia studied Economics and Arabic Studies at the University of Applied Sciences of Bremen and at the Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco. Afterwards, she completed her Master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies with a focus on Political Science at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg. She already participated in the research project „Wechselwirkungen“ of EZIRE as well as in the VW project „Global autocratic collaboration in times of COVID19“ under the direction of Thomas Demmelhuber. Antonia is fluent in English and Arabic.

 

 

Autocracies, the Temptation of Sentimentality and the Consolidation of Collective Identities in Gulf Monarchies

In her research project, Antonia examined the forms and functions of sentimentality in the consolidation of collective identities, using selected Gulf monarchies (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait) as case studies. She analyzed emotions and affects, as well as sentimentality as a relational communicative code that oscillates between past and present. The project investigated affect-driven civic engagement in processes of state transformation in the Gulf in light of multiple global crises like the looming post-oil era. She thus addressed gaps in existing research on the non-material modes of political order and regime survival.

A central focus lay on how memory practices within new cultural heritage projects activate emotional knowledge by drawing on historically shaped repertoires that are pre-structured by social and political norms as well as national ideological markers. Accordingly, the project examined sites of sentimentality in the cultural sector and in the context of national holidays. Emphasizing the reciprocal nature of sentimentality, the study adopted a tentative bottom-up approach by investigating affective responses through affect-ethnographic field research in the respective countries.

 

Talks

  • 11/2024: „Breaking the Chains of Political Passivity:  The Gulf Monarchies‘ Affective Strategies towards Civic Engagement“, Workshop on Apathy and Activation: Rethinking Political Passivity in Authoritarian and Hybrid Regimes, Centre for Modern East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen 14.-16. November 2024, Panel: Fighting Passivity (Henrike Rudolph/Bertram Lang)
  • 10/2023: „Drivers of Grassroots Social and Political Transition: Enhancing Saudi-German Underground Art Spheres“ Gulf Research Center and Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung’s Young Perspectives on Joint Cooperation Project, 14. October 2024.
  • 06/2023: with Thomas Demmelhuber: „Narratives of sentimentality and authoritarian regime survival in the Gulf monarchies.“ Sektionstagung der DVPW (Deutsche Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft) Sektion – Internationale Beziehungen,“ 14. – 16. Juni 2023, Zeppelin Universität Friedrichshafen.
  • 09/2022: with Thomas Demmelhuber: „Autocracies and the temptation of sentimentality: Nonmaterial means of “post-oil regime survival”.“ DOT (Deutscher Orientalistentag), 12. – 17. September 2022, Freie Universität Berlin, Panel: Authoritarian Power: Energy Systems & Scales of Authoritarianism in the MENA region ( N. Koch/B. Schütze).
  • 09/2022: „Autocratic hedging in times of Covid-19: A race for China’s favor?“. DOT, 12. – 17. September 2022, Freie Universität Berlin, Panel: The Gulf monarchies in a post-pandemic era: Old rules, new Game (T. Demmelhuber/T. Zumbraegel, J. Gurol).

 

Publications

  • Thies, Antonia. 2025. Back to the Future. State Transformation and Sentimental Repertoires of Belonging in Saudi Arabia. In Heike Paul and Sarah Pritz (eds.): Sentimental State(s). Affective Politics of Order and Belonging, Bielefeld: Transcript.
  • Thies, Antonia. 2025. Konstruktion von Wir-Identitäten. In Thomas Demmelhuber and Nadine Scharfenort (eds.): Handbuch Arabische Halbinsel. Geographie und Politik. Heidelberg: Springer Nature.
  • Thies, Antonia. Forthcoming. Drivers of Grassroots Social and Political Transition: Enhancing Saudi-German Underground Art Spheres. In KAS Policy Reports.
  • Thies, Antonia, Tobias Zumbraegel and Thomas Demmelhuber. 2025. The Race for Best Friendships in Sino-Gulf Relations: Fractured Cooperation and Conflict in Times of Strategic Uncertainty. In International Relations, online first.
  • Roll, Stephan and Antonia Thies. 2025. Saudi Arabia’s ‘Vision 2030’ and Trump’s Second Term. Between Diverging Interests and Business Relations. SWP Comment 2025/C 02. [Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik Berlin/German Institute for International and Security Affairs]
  • Roll, Stephan and Antonia Thies. 2025. Golfmonarchien: Geschäftsbeziehungen und Interessenskonflikte. In Aksoy, Asseburg, Kempin et al.: Perspektiven auf Trump II aus Europa, Nahost und Afrika. SWP Study 360°. [Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik Berlin/German Institute for International and Security Affairs]
  • Demmelhuber, Thomas and Antonia Thies. 2023. Autocracies and the temptation of sentimentality: repertoires of the past and contemporary meaning making in the Gulf monarchies. In Third World Quarterly. DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2023.2171392
  • Thies, Antonia, Mahmud Helmy, Jule Klopke and Jens Schönstedt. 2021. Quantitative Religionsforschung zu Migration und Religion. In Soziologie 50 (3). Tagungsbericht.

 

Fellowships and Field Research

  • 05/2025 Field Research Kuwait, recipient of Doctoral Research Scholarship from DAAD
  • 10-12/2024: Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), Research Division Africa and Middle East (Stephan Roll)
  • 09/2024: Field Research in Saudi-Arabia
  • 10-12/2023: Visting Research Fellowship, Gulf Studies Center, Doha, Qatar, Research Divisions Politics and Security (Luciano Zaccara) and Social Issues (Amr al-Azm)
  • 10-12/2023: Field Research in Qatar, recipient of Doctoral Research Scholarship of the Vinzl Foundation and Bureau of Gender and Diversity at FAU

 

Teaching

  • 2026: Feeling the Nation: Culture, Political Emotions and Nationalism in Gulf Monarchies, Institute of Political Science, Summer Term 2026, FAU
  • 12/2021: Methoden-Workshop „Computer-aided qualitative and mixed-methods data and text analysis with MaxQDA,“ 21. Dezember 2021. Research Project POP-DISC at Universität Freiburg (S. Destradi).
  • 05/2021: Methoden-Workshop „Computergestützte Datenanalyse in den qualitativen und quantitativen Methoden mittels MaxQDA,“ 12. und 19. Mai 2021, internal workplace training at the Erlanger Zentrum für Islam und Recht in Europa e.V. (EZIRE).