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Lars Rensmann APSA Head Shot Edit Steven Gregory Photography SGP_5447w.jpg

Lars Rensmann is Professor of Political Science and Comparative Government at the University of Passau, Germany. Before joining Passau’s faculty, he was Professior European Politics and Society and Founding Director of the Research Centre for the Study of Democratic Cultures and Politics at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, where he also served as the Chair of the Department of European Languages and Cultures and led the chair group of European Politics and Society. He is a member of several scientific and editorial boards, including the Journal of International Political Theory.  He previously served as Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Political Science and International Affairs at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy. Prior to his return to Europe, he was Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. Lars is also a Visiting Professor at Università Roma Tre and John Cabot University in Rome. In addition, he has held academic appointments and guest professorships at Yale University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Haifa, the University of Vienna, the Free University of Berlin, LMU Munich, Humboldt University Berlin, and the University of Potsdam, among others. His work focuses on comparative global and European politics; German, European and American governments, political cultures and systems; parties and party system change in Europe and the USA; democracies and crises of democracies in the global age; populism, populist governments, and populist parties in Germany, Europe, and around the world; the (comparative) politics of climate change; democracy, autocracy, authoritarianism, nationalism, racism, and antisemitism as well as human rights in comparative perspective; international democratic, critical and political theory and its contemporary relevance, including global constitutionalism and European integration; global political cultures and sports cultures; the history of genocide in the age of the Holocaust and its legacy for democracies. His research has been published in many journals, including the European Journal of Political Theory, European Journal of Cultural & Political Sociology, European View, European Politics and Society, Journal of European Studies, Politics and Governance, Politics, Religion & Ideology, Antisemitism Studies, Critical Horizons, German Politics & Society, Patterns of Prejudice, Political Science, and Perspectives on Politics. Recent and forthcoming book projects include: Governing Populism: How Populist Parties Perform When They Rule in Liberal Democracies (work in progress); Illiberal Democracy: The Populist ‘Alternative for Germany’ in European Context (in progress); The Politics of Unreason: The Frankfurt School and the Origins of Modern Antisemitism (SUNY Press, 2017); Gaming the World: How Sports Are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture (Princeton UP, 2010; with Andrei S. Markovits), Politics and Resentment: Antisemitism and Counter-Cosmopolitanism in the European Union (Brill, 2011; ed. with Julius H. Schoeps); Arendt and Adorno: Political and Philosophical Investigations (Stanford UP, 2012; ed. with Samir Gandesha).

https://www.phil.uni-passau.de/politikwissenschaft/team/prof-dr-lars-rensmann/