Prof. Dr. Michael Minkenberg

Professorship for Comparative Politics

Michael Minkenberg is Professor of Comparative Politics at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder). Since the mid-1990s, he has conducted various research projects on the radical right in Western Europe and the USA, and more recently also in Central and Eastern Europe. His research interests further include the relationship between religion and politics in Western societies, and the role of public architecture in capital cities.

He studied Political Science, History and Economics in Heidelberg, Freiburg/Br., Bonn, Köln, and in Washington DC at Georgetown University where he received his M.A. in Government. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg in 1989 and his Habilitation (venia legendi) in Political Science at the University of Göttingen in 1997.

Minkenberg has taught at Georgetown University, at the universities of Göttingen and Heidelberg, at Cornell University and Columbia University, before coming to Viadrina in 1998. From 2007 to 2010, he held the Max Weber Chair for German and European Studies at New York University. Among the institutions that he visited as a guest scholar are the EUI in Florence in 2000, UC Berkeley in 2003, Monash University in Melbourne in 2007, American University in Washington DC in 2013 and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York in 2017.

From 1999 to 2002 and from 2004 to 2007 he was Vice President for International Affairs at the European University Viadrina. From 2000 to 2007, he was spokesman for the Comparative Politics section of the German Political Science Association (DVPW). He is also a member of the American Political Science Association (APSA), the German Political Science Association (Deutsche Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft, DVPW), and the Standing Group “Extremism and Democracy“ of the European Consortium of Political Research (ECPR).

His editorial activities include membership of the editorial board of the journal “Comparative European Politics“.