Christopher Niederelz is a PhD-student at the “NRW-Forschungskolleg Online-Partizipation”. He is earning his degree under the tutelage of Prof. Dr. Christiane Eilders of the chair of communication- and media science III at Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf.

He studied political science and history at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz and proceeded with a Master of Arts in Democracy and Governance at Justus-Liebig-University Gießen. His MA-Thesis dealt with the explanation of the divergent outcomes of the Euro- and the Refugee Chrisis. Apart from his focus on European integration and International politics, Christopher Niederelz concentrated on the research of political extremism and the medialisation of political news and education.

At the Forschungskolleg, his research-interest revolves around the participation-strategies of interest-groups in online-participation systems.