2021—2022

Oliver Schmidtke

Political Science, University of Victoria

Oliver Schmidtke is a Professor in Political Science and History at the University of Victoria where he has also served as the director of the Centre for Global Studies since 2011. He received his PhD from the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence and has been a JF Kennedy Fellow at Harvard University, a visiting scholar at Humboldt University Berlin, a F. Braudel Senior Fellow at the EUI, and a Marie Curie Fellow at Hamburg University. Since 2006, he has led the European Studies Canada Network project promoting transatlantic research and outreach projects.

Oliver Schmidtke’s research interests are in the fields of the politics and governance of migration, citizenship, nationalism, democracy, and populism. Currently, he works on two externally funded, international research projects that investigate the link between the resurgence of (right-wing) populism and the state of liberal democracy. First, the project Populism and its Effects on Liberal Democracy asks how right-wing populist parties claim to represent the ‘voice of the people’ and express ‘popular sovereignty’. Second, the Jean Monnet Network: European Memory Politics – Populism, Nationalism and the Challenges to a European Memory Culture explores how the 20th century’s past is (re)interpreted and commemorated in contemporary political life.

During his fellowship at HIAS, Oliver Schmidtke will pursue his field research related to the research project on Populism and its Effects on Liberal Democracy. His stay at HIAS will also allow him to complete the work on two special issues of journals focussing on the nature of populist political mobilization and its effects on democratic constitutionalism. In addition, Oliver Schmidtke will collaborate with the European research networks associated with his current Jean Monnet Network on ‘European Memory Politics’ advancing the work on a monograph.

His collaboration partners are Arnd-Michael Nohl, professor for Education Science at Helmut-Schmidt-Universität Hamburg, and Antje Wiener, professor for Political Science and Global Governance, at Universität Hamburg.

Oliver Schmidtke‘s HIAS Fellowship is funded by the federal and state funds acquired by the Universität Hamburg in the framework of its excellence strategy.

Website

Oliver Schmidtke

Funding

Universität Hamburg

Tandem

Prof. Arnd-Michael Nohl, Professor for Education Science at Helmut-Schmidt-Universität Hamburg
Prof. Dr. Antje Wiener, Professor for Political Science and Global Governance at Universität Hamburg

Image Information

Illustration of the project “Democracy and Populism” by the Europe Canada Network (EUCAnet), detail, www.eucanet