Reja WYSS

Reja Wyss is a Wiener-Anspach doctoral fellow at ULB and a DPhil student in political sociology at the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford. In 2023–2024, she was also a visiting fellow at Sciences Po. She previously completed an MPhil in Russian and East European Studies at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford.

In her research, Reja Wyss focuses on crises and crisis moments, such as natural and humanitarian disasters or the outbreak of war. She currently examines socio-political reactions to crises, with a particular interest in public opinion and (far-right) parliamentarians’ responses.

This research is embedded in a broader interest in crisis management, societal resilience, critical infrastructure, and hybrid threats. In order to gain a better understanding of the security- and policy-oriented perspective on crises, Reja Wyss recently worked as an Academic Associate for the Mission of Switzerland to NATO. Furthermore, building on this interest in bridging the gap between studying crises and crisis management, Reja Wyss has also examined the role of science and knowledge in society and politics. For example, she was the lead author of a research project on the participation of academic experts in Swiss parliamentary hearings and co-authored a report on Holocaust distortion online.

Reja Wyss is also engaged in public outreach projects, such as the Europe’s Stories project and Europe in a Changing World project, led by Prof. Timothy Garton Ash, and is a member of the Swiss science and grassroots think tank Reatch, where she supports work on crisis management and resilience.

In line with her regional focus on Europe, with a particular interest in Eastern Europe, she has previously led Politics in Europe tutorials at The Queen’s College and St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford. She also supported a course on Democracy in Europe at Sciences Po and was a tutor for the Introduction to Comparative Politics course at the University of Basel.

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