Seyedmahdi Khodaei
Chair of Human Rights Law (Alexander von Humboldt Professorship)
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S. Mahdi Khodaei is a doctoral candidate in Human Rights and Political Science at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg (FAU). His research focuses on human rights movements in authoritarian and semi-authoritarian contexts, with particular attention to mobilisation strategies, state repression, and transnational advocacy.
His doctoral dissertation examines human rights movements in the Middle East during the first two decades of the 21st century, case study of Iran and Egypt. The project analyses movement structures, repertoires of contention, and regime responses, including forms of transnational repression, as well as the interaction between domestic activism and international human rights networks. His research is supervised by Prof. Dr. Michael Krennerich and Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Heiner Bielefeldt.
Khodaei holds a Master’s degree in Human Rights from FAU. His Master’s thesis explored the human rights implications of climate change, with a particular focus on how environmental transformations exacerbate patterns of discrimination and marginalisation among vulnerable groups in ethnically divided contexts.
Beyond his academic work, he has been actively involved in human rights research and practice, contributing to projects at the intersection of legal analysis, advocacy, and policy-oriented research.
- Authoritarianism and political repression
- Human rights movements and mobilisation strategies
- Transnational advocacy networks
- Transnational repression
- Digital activism and civic space
- Human rights and climate justice
Mapping Transnational Repression in Germany
Researcher, CHREN Human Rights Clinic (in cooperation with the Deutsches Institut für Menschenrechte)
July 2025 – present
Project: Addressing Transnational Repression: Germany’s human rights responsibilities and options as a host state under domestic and international (including EU) law.
Responsibilities include legal and desk research, stakeholder mapping, policy analysis, and drafting analytical memoranda in collaboration with the German Institute for Human Rights (DIMR).
PhD Candidate in Human Rights / Political Science (ongoing)
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg (FAU), Germany
- Dissertation: Human Rights Movements in the Middle East (2000–2020): Case Studies of Iran and Egypt
- Focus: mobilisation, repression, transnational advocacy
M.A. in Human Rights
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg (FAU), Germany (2019)
Articles
- Khodaei, S. M. (2023). Strategic Analysis of the “Women, Life, Freedom” Uprising in Iran. Iran Academia Journal.
- Khodaei, S. M. (2017). Solitary confinement, Section 350, Evin Prison in Tehran.
Book
- Khodaei, M. (2017). Multiple Approaches to Human Rights in Iran. London: H&S Media.
Book Chapter
- Khodaei, S. M. (2022). Against the Current: Human Rights and Climate Justice in the Global South. Dejusticia, Bogotá.
Research Projects
- Contributor, CHREN Human Rights Clinic (with DIMR), Mapping Transnational Repression in Germany - a Human Rights Perspective, 2025–2026.
- Khodaei, M. (2026). Political participation at the edge: Human rights mobilisation, lived experience, and authoritarian power. Paper accepted for presentation at the ECPR General Conference 2026.
- Khodaei, M. (2026). Creative resistance in authoritarian contexts: The case of “No to Death Penalty Tuesdays” campaign in Iran. Paper accepted for presentation at the Social Practice of Human Rights Conference 2026, University of Dayton.
- Selected participant, Geodata for Human Rights Winter School (FAU / CHREN / International Nuremberg Principles Academy), Erlangen, 2025
- Selected participant, Workshop on Climate Change and Human Rights, Dejusticia, Bogotá, 2018
- Selected participant, Valuing Human Rights across Asian and European Borders, Heinrich Böll Foundation, 2018
- CHREN – Center for Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg
- CHREN Human Rights Law Clinic