Leonie Thies

I am a social scientist focusing on the criminal legal system, sociology of law and policing. For my DPhil project, I am doing an ethnographic study on 'alternatives' to punishment in the Berlin youth justice system. Specifically, I look at how youth diversion is practised and what this tells us about citizen making, punishment and its alternatives. 

I have completed a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in social sciences (sociology and political sciences) at Humboldt-University Berlin in Germany. During my studies, I worked as a research assistant at the Department for Urban and Regional Sociology at Humboldt University and at the WZB (Berlin Social Science Center). After graduating, I was a research fellow at the WZB and in the research group 'Sociology of Law' at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. 

My Master's was funded by the 'German Academic Scholarship Foundation'. The Humboldt Graduate School supported my transition from my MA to doctoral studies through the 'Humboldt Research Track Scholarship'. My DPhil is fully funded by the German Villigst Scholarship. 

I am the student editor of the Talking about Methods podcast by the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford and a founder and co-convenor of the Discussion Group "Abolitionist Imaginaries and Praxis". In Hilary term 2024, I taught "Crime and Justice" at Worcester College, University of Oxford and am teaching a class on "Criminalisation of Urban Youth" at the Social Science Institute of Humboldt University Berlin in the winter semester 2024/2025. During the academic year 2024/2025, I am a visiting researcher at the Law & Society Institute and the Department for Urban and Regional Sociology at Humboldt University Berlin.