Office hours

The office hours take place online (via Zoom) every Friday between 09:30 and 10:30 a.m. or by prior appointment. Registration via email to Philip Nock (nock@uni-bonn.de) is required.

Contact: Room 3.009, Phone: +49 (0)228 73 5640.

Profile

Dr. Maximilian Mayer is Professor of International Relations and Global Politics of Technology at University of Bonn. He was assistant professor at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (2019-2020). He is also research fellow at Renmin University Beijing (2018-2020), worked as Research Professor at Tongji University, Shanghai (2015-2018) and was senior researcher at the Munich Center for Technology in Society, Technical University Munich (2018-2019). Maximilian worked at the Bonn University’s Center for Global Studies (CGS) as managing assistant and senior herefellow (2009-2015). Maximilian holds a master degree from Ruhr University Bochum and obtained his PhD at Bonn University. His research interests include the global politics of science, innovation, and technology; China’s foreign and energy policy; global energy and climate politics; theories of International Relations. Maximilian presents regularly at international conferences, publishes his research in peer-reviewed journals, and has authored seven books including China’s Energy Thirst: Myth or Reality? (2007 together with Xuewu Gu), Changing orders: transdiciplinary analysis of global and local realities (2008, co-editer), two-volumes on The Global Politics of Science and Technology (2014, lead editor). He is coeditor of Art and Sovereignty in Global Politics (Palgrave, 2016) and edited Rethinking the Silk-Road: Chinas Belt and Road Initiative and Emerging Eurasian Relations (Palgrave, 2018). Maximilian was visiting scholar at Harvard Kennedy School, Program on Science, Technology and Society, and section co-chair of STAIR (Science, Technology, Arts and international relations) of the International Studies Association (2015-2017) and STAIR program chair (2014-2015). Furthermore, he is part of the research group The Second Cold War Observatory.

Full CV here. More information on the website of the Institute for Political Science.

Ongoing Research Projects

• Learnig Empire: Autonomy, Dependence, and China's Emerging Imperial Practices, DFG-Research Unit (FOR 5913/1)
• Digital Dependence Index 2.0
• CHINAGLOBAL – Wie China Global Governance formt. Strategische Narrative und globale Praktiken
• Katekisama
• Netzwerk KI und digitale Autonomie in Wissenschaft und Bildung (KIAuBi)
• Tech Middle Power Cooperation

Former Research Projects

• Infrastructures of China’s Modernity and Their Global Constitutive Effects
• Asia-European Consortium on AI Research (AECAIR)
• Surveying Strategic Digital Politics (funded by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung)
• No-Covid-Strategie
• Comparative Covid Response: Crisis, Knowledge, Politics
• Assessment of Evolving International Infrastructures and Pandemic Management
• Digital Fragmentations and Digital Sovereignty (funded by TRA4 of the University of Bonn)

Selected Events

• Tech Middle Powers Workshop 2025 (04/2025)
• Webinar on "KI und Autonomie in der Hochschullehre", University:Future Festival 2025 (05/2025)
• ASC Annual Meeting 2024 (11/2024)
• Lunch talk at CASSIS with experts from the field of space policy and space security (10/2024)
• Summer School on "Artificial Intelligence, Social Machines, and the Future of Democratic Societies" (09/2024)
• Understanding China's Modernity - European Reflections (usually once a month)
• Roundtable “What is Global China?”, Jagiellonian University Kraków (10/2023)
• Lecture Series "Digitalization of Memory Practices and Heritage in Global Perspectives" (Summer semester 2023)
• Autonomy in the Digital Age: Rethinking Relationships between Humans, Technology and Society (11/2022)
• Fifth AECAIR International Conference: Artificial Intelligence Solutions in a Turbulent World (11/2022)
• „China in der deglobalen Konstellation“, Dialog with Heinz Bude in the Series „Krieg und Frieden--Streit ums Politische“ (11/2022)
• Fourth AECAIR International Conference: Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence (12/2021)
• International Security Forum Bonn 2021: Special Focus Day "The Rise of Eastern Modernity? European Responses to China’s Global Role” (9/2021)
• Der Westen liegt auch im Osten. Wie eine europäische Initiative im „Indo-Pazifik“ aussehen könnte (1/2021)
• International Security Forum Bonn 2020: Special Focus Day on "What to Learn from the Pandemic: Security in the Light of COVID-19" (12/2020)
• China as Digital Superpower: An American-German Workshop on Digital Infrastructure and Digital Security (12/2020)
• Framing the Future of AI: Policy Dilemmas and Solutions (11/2020)
• EU-Korea convergence and partnerships 10 years after the EU-Korea FTA (11/2020)
• Seminarreihe: Innovation in Health Governance and AI (6/7 2020)