1988−1996 Studies in History, German Literature and Italian at the University of Cologne and the University of Bologna; 1997−2000 Research stay in Italy, scholarship holder of the German Historical Institute in Rome, DAAD and the Italian government; 2002 Doctorate (Dr. phil.) at the University of Darmstadt, dissertation topic: "Liebespfand fürs Vaterland. Die Gold- und Eheringsammlung im faschistischen Italien 1935/36" (summa cum laude; outstanding scientific achievement awarded by the association "Vereinigung von Freunden der TU Darmstadt"); April 2004 Research Assistant at the University of Kiel; November 2004 Appointment as Junior Professor of European Cultural and Contemporary History at the University of Göttingen; 2006/07 Visiting Lecturer at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland; 2007/08 Visiting Researcher at the German Historical Institute in Rome; 2012 Appointment as Professor of European Cultural and Contemporary History at the University of Göttingen; 2019/20 Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow, St Antonyꞌs College, Oxford; since May 2023 member of the International Commission of Historians investigating the attack on the Israeli Olympic team in Munich in 1972 (convened by Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser); since October 2024 Director of the German Historical Institute in Rome.

Main research
20th-century German and Western European history; transnational and comparative history; Italian fascism; gender history; political violence and terrorism in the 20th century; visual history

Editorships
Co-editor of the series Italien in der Moderne
Co-editor of the series Veröffentlichungen des Zeitgeschichtlichen Arbeitskreises Niedersachsen
Co-editor of the journal Visual History. Rivista internazionale di storia e critica dell'immagine