Florian Gawehns is a PhD candidate in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park. His primary subfield is American Politics with specific interests in Congress, intraparty organizations and foreign policy. Before starting his PhD at Maryland, he spent three years working for an NGO in his home country, Germany. Florian holds a M.A. and B.A. in Political Science from the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, a public, research-oriented university in the city of Halle, Germany.

Florian taught a wide range of classes at UMD, both as TA and primary instructor. This semester, he is a teaching assistant for the International Affairs Cornerstone class at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Previously, he lectured at The Catholic University of America, designing and teaching courses on The U.S. Presidency and American Political Parties, both of which received excellent student evaluations.

In his research, Florian explores the intersection of Congress, ideology and public policy. In a forthcoming paper in State Politics & Policy Quarterly, Florian and his coauthor Matthew Green (The Catholic University of America) examine the rise of ideological intraparty organizations in US states modeled after the congressional House Freedom Caucus. They find that these caucuses were initially driven by legislators’ concerns over ideological unity but are now fueled by conservative entrepreneurs aiming to create a national network.

You can find examples of his German publications here and his work in English here. A recent working paper is available here.