Professor Dr Thomas Zittel, Professor for Comparative Politics at Goethe University Frankfurt, took over the prestigious Max Weber Chair at New York University (NYU) for the 2021/22 winter semester. He will be teaching and conducting research in the area of German and European politics for a period of initially two years, as well as being involved in organising the programme of Deutsches Haus New York.

‘I am delighted that we were able to appoint Professor Zittel, who is an acclaimed academic bridge builder between Germany and the United States, as well as an outstanding expert of continental European politics,’ said DAAD President Professor Dr Joybrato Mukherjee. In the context of the jointly established professorship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and New York University, experts for German and European politics have been invited to spend academic stays in the US since 1994.
 
Zittel studied political science and German studies at John Hopkins University and the University of Mannheim, where he obtained his doctorate in political science, and qualified to teach at professorial level. He was granted various fellowships by institutions including the European University Institute in Florence, Harvard University, the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and the American Political Science Association.

Before his time in Frankfurt and New York, Thomas Zittel taught at the universities in Mannheim, Duisburg-Essen, Munich (LMU) and at Cornell University. His areas of teaching and research are the field of democracy research with particular focus on representation and parliament research, as well as comparative analysis of the German and US-American system of government.

Max Weber Chair
The Max Weber Chair was established by the DAAD and NYU in 1994. Alongside nineteen further ‘German Studies Professorships’ across North America, it is part of the DAAD’s North America Strategy. Its objective is to promote German and European issues as well as theoretical and methodical approaches that are related to Germany as part of the educational programme of leading higher education institutions in North America. Since the end of the DAAD’s ten-year funding period, the Chair has been financed using foundation assets of NYU, while the DAAD remains in charge of organising calls for application and selection procedures. Before Thomas Zittel’s appointment, the Chair was held by Claus Leggewie, Detlef Pollack, Christiane Lemke-Dämpfling and most recently by Christian Martin.

Event information
On 23 September, Thomas Zittel is holding an online event entitled ""Germany at the Polls: Between Authoritarian Populism and Progressive Politics" about the German parliamentary election in cooperation with NYU’s Deutsches Haus. Participation is free.