Tara Pfrunder joins the IPZ as a PhD student under the supervision of Enzo Nussio and Katharina Michaelowa. Additionally, she is also an assistant at the Chair of "Political Economy of Developing and Emerging Countries". Tara graduated with a BSc in Psychology and German Language Studies from the University of Zurich in 2022, and finished her MA in Comparative and International Studies at ETH Zurich in 2025. In her Master’s thesis, she examined how personality traits moderate the translation of socio-economic disadvantages into far-right-associated subjective deprivation sentiments. During her studies, she worked as a research assistant at the Chair of "Political Economy of Developing and Emerging Countries". Additionally, she worked at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) as a research assistant for Dr. Valerie Sticher and Dr. Corinne Bara in their “Nightwatch” project, which leverages satellite-based nighttime light data and machine learning for the early detection of humanitarian crises.