Nicole Milman-Doerr

Nicole Milman-Doerr

Nicole Milman-Doerr

Nicole Milman-Doerr

Professor of Sociology,
Universität Siegen

Migration, democracy, knowledge, translation, far right political mobilisation, climate change



Publications

About  Milman-Doerr

Nicole Milman-Doerr joined the University of Siegen in September 2025 from the University of Copenhagen where she held the associate professorship and research chair of  'CoMMonS', the Copenhagen Centre for Research of Political Mobilisation and Social Movement Studies. Doerr held previous positions at Harvard University and as Assistant Professor in International Relations at Mount Holyoke, where she co-founded the Five Colleges Research Group on Protest Research. She did her PhD at the EUI in Florence and her Masters at Sciences Po in Paris and at OSI FU Berlin. Doerr has been chair of the Council of European Studies Network on International Migration Research and the ESA's RN on Political Participation and Collective Behavior. Her multi-methods research combines qualitative and visual, critical discursive analysis. She supervises projects interested in migration and far right extremism, knowledge and translation, culture, democracy, political conflict mobilization, visual methods, citizenship, climate change,  inequality, education, and gender.

  • CHANSE-Horizon Europe Project, Principle Investigator “PolarVis: Visual Persuasion in a Transforming Europe” (2022-2025)

  • "Extreme Identities" Horizon 2020-EU-NORFACE Project, Programme "Democratic Governance in a Turbulent Age" Doerr Principle Investigator ExId Project: Interpreting visual computational data, analysis of digital storytelling of EU Far-Right Online Communities’ Politics of Identity, 2019-2022.

  • BMBF Senior Research Grant KHK-Project "Visual digital storytelling, diffusion and translation of the Global Far Right:" U.S./Europe. Käthe-Hamburger Rearch Centre, GCR21, University of Duisburg, 2021-2022.

  • "Translate Diversity" Horizon 2020 project, Doerr Principle Investigator: Voices, solidarity, and political claims by female and LGBTQI refugees acts of citizenship in public debates about gender and migration" (EU-IPODI), cooperation with Prof Sabine Hark, TU Berlin, 2016-18.



EU and international Research Projects


Recent work on migration and democracy

  • The EU-IPODI Project (TU-Berlin)
    studied migrants' contribution to deepening democracy in European societies.
    -civic volunteers and refugee solidarity coalitions in Germany, Denmark and Sweden
    -used multi-site ethnography to show how highly educated migrant residents helped refugees to empower and translate their voices into politics
    -critical political translators bridging boundaries of language, culture, and class at intersectional coalition meetings
    -IPODI Project findings have been published in European Journal of Politics and Gender (2024) here.
  • CHANSE-Horizon Europe Project “PolarVis: Visual Persuasion in a Transforming Europe”
    -studies how far right and extremist political activists use visual digital media to seed mistrust toward EU and national policy making on ecological transitioning and COP climate negotiations
    -found that German climate activists 'politically translate' voices of minority youth and socially disadvantaged Global South actors. Open access findings here.
    -compared visual storytelling on science, affect vs rights of nature in Global North vs. South climate activism. Open access project findings here 

  • Horizon Europe-Norface Democratic Governance in a Turbulent Age:
    ExId Project: "Extreme Identities" computer vision multimodal analysis of digital storytelling of U.S. and European Far-Right Online Communities’ Politics of Identity. Project findings here.

  • Local citizens engage to 'organize' EU-green transition in Danish and German best-case cities: expert interviews & digital ethnography.
    -Read project findings: “Climate translators” building trust and local democratic cooperation on energy, traffic, and environmental policy: Denmark and Germany. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 65(4), 479-498.     https://doi.org/10.1177/00207152231219489. Open access





  • Supervised the Marie Curie Sklodowska Postdoc Project of Prof. Dr. Kamran Khan, Associate Professor and Director of MOSAIC, University of Birmingham, Marie Curie fellow at University of Copenhagen Department of Sociology 2021-2023.

  • Supervised Marie Curie Sklodowska Postdoc Project of Dr. Malgorzata Kurjanska, University of Copenhagen, 2023-2025.

  • Supervised EU-Chanse Postdoc Dr. María Florencia Langa, University of Copenhagen, 2023-25.

  • Supervised EU-Norface Postdoc Prof. Dr. Eva Svatonova, Prague University UJEP, University of Copenhagen, 2022-2023.

  • Supervised EU-Norface Postdoc Dr. Beth Gardner, University of Copenhagen, Department of Sociology, 2019-2021.

EU-postdoc supervision

Publications

Books

  1. Nicole Doerr, Trust in democracy from below, climate protest and far right counter mobilisation in Europe. A Multi-site Ethnography. Cambridge University Press Contentious Politics. Manuscript under preparation.
  2. Nicole Doerr, 2018. Political Translation—How Social Movement Democracies Survive. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press. Contentious Politics Series.
  3. Nicole Doerr, Alice Mattoni and Simon Teune. eds, 2013Towards the Visual Analysis of Social Movements. Research Series on Conflict, Social Movements, and Political Change(3)35. Bingley: Emerald.

Special issues (editor)

  1. "Visual intervention and the (re)enactment of democracy." co-edited by Nicole Doerr and Anna Schober, Visual Studies,  2024. https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2023.2275918
  2. Jean Beaman, Nicole Doerr, Piotr Kocyba, Anna Lavizzari, & Sabrina Zajak 2023. "Black Lives Matter and the new wave of anti-racist mobilizations in Europe." European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 10(4), 497–507. https://doi.org/10.1080/23254823.2023.2274234
  3. "Activism, Agency, and Acts of Translating Gendered Belongings and Concepts." European Journal of Politics and Gender, 7:1 co-edited by Nicole Doerr and Susanne Zwingel, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1332/25151088Y2023D000000019.

Peer-reviewed journal articles (selection)

  1. Nicole Doerr, and María Florencia Langa. 2025. "The Politics of Trust: Emotions and Visual Narratives in Online Climate Change Debates at COP26." International Political Sociology (19)4.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olaf029

  2. Nicole Doerr, with Emil Bakkensen Johansen, Mathias Wullum Nielsen. (2025) "Momentary Symbols: Tracing the Visual Expressions of Collectives" Acta Sociologica.

    https://doi 10.1177/00016993251379164. Forthcoming.

  3. Nicole Doerr, "Digital Images Translating Climate Justice Online to inspire Transformative Ecological Visions of World Order from the Margins," Global Studies Quarterly, 4, 3, 2024, ksae073,https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksae073
  4. Nicole Doerr, and Janus Porsild Hansen (2024). “Climate translators” building trust and local democratic cooperation on green transition: Denmark and Germany. International Journal of Comparative Sociology,65(4), 479-98. Open access. https://doi.org/10.1177/00207152231219489
  5. Nicole Doerr, and María Florencia Langa 2024, 'Images of Nature in Online Climate Activism in Germany and Argentina:Science, Affect and Non-Human‘Everybodies’', Journal for Development Studies, 39, 3-4, 33-64. Open access here
  6. Nicole Doerr. 2024. "Translation as a cultural tool for mediating conflict in queer and feminist grassroots democratic coalitions in Denmark, Germany and Sweden." European Journal of Politics and Gender, 7(1), 45-64. https://doi.org/10.1332/25151088Y2023D000000008
  7. Nicole Doerr, with Noa Milman, 2023. “Black Lives Matter, Citizenship, and Contentious Acts of Visibility by Ethnic Minorities in Denmark and Greenland.”European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology. Online first:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23254823.2023.2187427
  8. Nicole Doerr, and Eva Svatonova 2023a. “Despised, Feared, Emphasised or Hegemonic—Far Right Digital Images of Womanhood on US Telegram Channels” European Journal of Politics and Gender. Access at https://doi.org/10.1332/25151088Y2023D000000001
  9. Eva Svatonova, and Nicole Doerr 2023b. “How Anti-LGBTQI* and Anti-Gender Imaginary Translate Great Replacement Theories Online” EuropeanJournal of Politics and Gender. Special Issue Activism, Agency, and Acts of Translating Gendered Belongings and Concepts. https://doi.org/10.1332/25151088Y2023D000000006
  10. Sarah Awad, Nicole Doerr, and Anita Nissen. 2022. ‘Far-right boundary construction toward the “other”: Visual communication of the Danish People’s Party on social media.’British Journal of Sociology, 1–21. Open access https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12975.
  11. Nicole Doerr, and Beth Gardner, 2022. “After the storm: Translating the US Capitol storming in Germany’s right-wing digital media ecosystem',Translation in Society,1,1, 83 - 104. Open access  https://doi.org/10.1075/tris.21008.doe
  12. Nicole Doerr, 2022 „Klimaschutz lokal vermitteln: zur Rolle zivilgesellschaftliche Klimaübersetzer:innen in Deutschland und Dänemark.“Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, Sonderheft zu Demokratie und Ökologie, April 2022.Open access.
  13. Nicole Doerr, 2021. “The Visual Politics of the Alternative for Germany (AfD): Anti-Islam, Ethno-Nationalism, and Gendered Images.”Social Sciences,10(1), 20.Open access:https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10010020.
  14. Nicole Doerr, with Hjalmar Bang Carlsen, and Jonas Toubol. 2020. “Inequality in interaction: scene styles of equalizing the helper-recipient relationship in voluntary empowerment projects”Voluntas.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-020-00268-9.
  15. Nicole Doerr. 2019. “Von diskursiver Marginalisierung zu politischer Teilhabe? Politische Übersetzung und Migrant:innenbewegungen in kalifornischen Städten/Kommunen.“Forschungsjournal soziale Bewegungen, 32(3), 379–393.
  16. Nicole Doerr. 2017a. “Bridging language barriers, bonding against immigrants: A visual case study of transnational network publics created by far-right activists in Europe”Discourse and Society28(1): 3-23. Open access.
  17. Nicole Doerr. 2017b. “How right-wing vs. cosmopolitan actors mobilize and translate images of immigrants in transnational contexts”Visual Studies, 16: 3, 315-336.
    https://doi.org/10.1177/14703572177028
  18. Nicole Doerr. 2013. Between Habermas and Rancière: The Democracy of Translation.Transversal(6) 13, [Special issue ‘Europe—A community that cannot speak’].Open access.
  19. Nicole Doerr. 2012. “Translating democracy: how activists in the European Social Forums practice multilingual deliberation.”European Political Science Review, 4(3), 361–384.
  20. Nicole Doerr. 2011. “The Disciplining of Dissent, and the Role of Empathetic Listeners in Deliberative Politics”Globalizations2011 (3) 519-534.
  21. Nicole Doerr. 2010. “Politicizing Precarity, Producing Visual Dialogues on Migration: Transnational Public Spaces in Social Movements.”Forum Qualitative Social Research11(2).Open access:
  22. Nicole Doerr. 2009. “Language and Democracy in Movement.”Social Movement Studies8 (2) 149-165.
  23. Nicole Doerr. 2008. “Deliberative discussion, language, and efficiency in the World Social Forum process.”Mobilization13(4): 395-410.
  24. Nicole Doerr. 2007. “Is ‘another’ public space actually possible? Deliberative Democracy and the Case of ‘Women Without.’Journal of International Women’s Studies8(3): 71-87.
  25. Massimiliano Andretta and Nicole Doerr. 2007.“Internal and external NGOs at the European crossroad.”European Foreign Affairs Review12, (3). 385-40.
  26. Alice Mattoni, and Nicole Doerr. 2007. “Images within the precarity movement.”Feminist Review87 (4):130-5.


Contributions to edited volumes (selection)


  1. Nicole Doerr, and Noa Milman. Forthcoming. "Visual Approaches to the Far Right" Oxford University Press Handbook of Social Movements of the Far Right, edited by Manuela Caiani and Jens Rydgren.
  2. Noa Milman, and Nicole Doerr 2023. “Black Lives Matter and Anti-Racist Mobilisations in Europe – A Visual Perspective” inHandbook of Progressive Politics. Alice Mattoni (ed). Routledge. Forthcoming.
  3. Nicole Curato, and Nicole Doerr. 2022. “Ethnography.” Methodological Approaches in Deliberative Democracy.Selen A. Ercan, Nicole Curato, Hans Asenbaum, and Ricardo Mendoza, (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  4. Noa Milman, and Nicole Doerr, 2022. “Visual Analysis” Oxford Handbook of Political Participation” Mario Giugni and Maria Grasso eds. Oxford University Press.Preprint.
  5. Nicole Doerr. 2019. “Activists as political translators? Addressing structural inequality and positional misunderstandings in refugee solidarity coalitions in Germany and Denmark.” In Irvine, J, S. Lang, & C. Montoya (Eds.),Gendered mobilizations and intersectional challenges: Contemporary social movements in Europe and North AmericaLondon: Rowman & Littlefield. Pp. 189–207.Link.
  6. Nicole Doerr. 2020. “Social Movements and Translation” In:The Politics of Translation in International Relations.Maj Grasten, Zeynep Gülşah Çapan, & Filipe Dos Reis (eds.). Springer Verlag.
  7. Nicole Doerr. 2020. “Political translation and civic translation capacities for democracy in post-migrant societies.”Oxford Handbook on Translation and Societyedited by Christine Chi. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  8. Donatella della Porta and Nicole Doerr. 2018. “Deliberation and Protest.”,Oxford Handbook of Deliberative Democracyedited by John Dryzek, Jane Mansbridge, André Bächtiger and Mark Warren. Pp: 636-62.
  9. Nicole Doerr and Noa Milman. 2018. “Protest” in Roland Bleiker, ed, Visual Global Politics. London: Routledge. Pp. 233-236.
  10. Nicole Doerr. 2018. “Translation and Democracy.” In:Routledge Handbook on Translation and Politics. Jonathan Evans and Fruela Fernandez Pp: 63-78.
  11. Nicole Doerr, Alice Mattoni and Simon Teune. 2015. “Visuals in social movements.” InOxford Handbook Research in Social Movementsedited by Donatella della Porta and Mario Diani.
  12. Flam, Helena, and Nicole Doerr, 2015.Visuals and Emotions in Social Movements. Methods of Exploring Emotions. editor / Helena Flam ; Jochen Kleres. Routledge.
  13. Nicole Doerr, and Noa Milman. 2013. “Visual Analysis” Oxford Handbook on Methodological Practices of Social Movement Research” ed Donatella della Porta. Oxford University Press. Link.
  14. Jackie Smith and Nicole Doerr, 2011. “Democracy in the US and German Social Forums” inHandbook of the World Social Forums. Jackie Smith et al. (eds.) Paradigm.

Visiting professorships

2023 ConTrust Visiting Professor, Goethe Universität Excellence Cluster Initiative ConTrust & PRIF


2021  Senior Fellow, Käthe Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research, University of Duisburg


2019 Visiting Professor, Göteborg University, Departments of Global Studies, Sociology and Work


Online Presence

LinkedIn

Uni Siegen

ResearchGate

Nicole Milman-Doerr

Nicole Milman-Doerr