Mareike Riedel is a research fellow in the Grand Challenge Project on Australian Social Cohesion: Exploring New Directions. With a background in law and the humanities, Mareike completed her PhD in sociolegal studies at the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) at the Australian National University in 2019. Before joining the ANU College of Law, Mareike was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Ethics, Law and Politics department at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen, Germany. Previously, she was a member of the Law and Anthropology department of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany. Mareike has taught courses in public law at the Free University Berlin, Martin Luther University Halle, and at the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Science.

Mareike’s current research explores the intersections of law, religion, and race, particularly in relation to the rights of religious minority groups. Her primary interests relate to how the law participates in regulating and excluding certain forms of religious difference as well as the relationship between antisemitism, Islamophobia, and contemporary secular law. Mareike has also worked on constitutional law issues, including the regulation of artistic expression with regard to legal bans on works of literary fiction.