Valentin Feneberg Awarded Humboldt Prize

Reflecting on his findings, Feneberg highlights: "Asylum procedures involve extensive investigations into countries of origin. Yet, judges arrive at diametrically opposed conclusions," explains the political scientist. His research did not focus on the credibility of asylum seekers but rather on how judges assess risk conditions in countries of origin. To this end, he analysed court rulings concerning Syria and Afghanistan and conducted interviews with 40 judges. "Courts agree on the general situation in these countries, but draw markedly different conclusions from it," he notes. These discrepancies stem from conflicting assumptions about the Syrian regime and Afghanistan's humanitarian crisis. "My research aims to uncover these underlying assumptions," Feneberg adds.

Valentin Feneberg is a research associate at Leuphana's Chair for Public Policy and Law. He completed his PhD at the HU’s Institute of Social Sciences, where he also served as a research coordinator and research associate at the Integrative Research Institute Law & Society.

Since 2008, the Humboldt Prize has honoured outstanding academic achievements by students and early-career researchers. Nominations are made by the university's deans, and this year’s awards were presented by HU President Julia von Blumenthal during a formal ceremony.

“I’m a political scientist who spent five years drifting through a law faculty,” Feneberg quips. He fondly recalls the interdisciplinary environment at the Integrative Research Institute Law & Society, which examines legal phenomena through various academic lenses. This experience shaped his specialisations in legal and judicial studies and migration research. “I’m particularly interested in asylum procedures, the judicial use of country-of-origin information, complementary protection status, poverty as grounds for protection, asylum rulings on conscientious objection, and the implementation of voluntary return policies,” he elaborates.

Feneberg is co-editor of the Journal for Refugee and Asylum Studies. During the summer of 2024, he was a visiting scholar at the Centre for Refugee Studies and the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford, supported by both Leuphana’s Institute of Political Science and HU’s Integrative Research Institute Law & Society. With the €3,000 prize, he plans to cover housing costs in England.

The launch event for Feneberg’s dissertation will take place on Thursday, 5 December, at 6:00 PM, both online and at Humboldt University of Berlin. Registration is required via: law-and-society@hu-berlin.de.