Christiane Lemke is a Professor of Political Science at Hannover University in Hannover, Germany where she holds the Jean Monnet Chair in European political Science. Her main fields of interests are Comparative Politics and International Relations, European Studies, Contemporary German Politics, Women and Politics, and Political Theory. A graduate of the Free University of Berlin, where she received her Ph.D. in 1978, Professor Lemke was a John F. Kennedy  Memorial Fellow at Harvard.

She is a widely published author in leading political and academic journals, and has been a key contributor or editor for a wide range of journals and political texts, most notably The Crisis of Socialism in Europe. A much sought-after teacher, Professor Lemke has been a visiting professor and lecturer at a number of universities around the world, including Harvard, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Leipzig, and Oxford University.