Chair of Middle East Politics and Society (Prof. Dr. Thomas Demmelhuber)
Chair of Middle East Politics and Society (Prof. Dr. Thomas Demmelhuber)
Who we are...
The Chair of Middle East Politics and Society specializes in research and teaching on the Middle East and North African region (MENA) and is one of the main research units of the Institute of Political Science as well as part of a broad network of interdisciplinary research on the Middle East at FAU. The chair is also part of the Cluster of Excellence EXC 3039 “Transforming Human Rights” (2026-2032).
Our research and teaching activities concentrate on the MENA region and its transregional entanglements with the international arena(s). We work and teach on a wide range of topics along the subfields of our discipline Political Science: Regime analysis of state and power (autocratization, transformation of political orders), questions of legitimacy/legitimation of political order, state-society relations (questions of participation and inclusion), historical analysis of political concepts (liberalism, nationalism, secularism and Islamism), and cooperation and conflict mechanisms (Gulf Cooperation Council, Middle East conflict/Arab-Israeli conflict). Regular conferences and lectures (see Middle East Politics and Society Lecture Series, MELS) organized by the Chair present the cutting-edge research on Middle Eastern politics, society, and culture.
The Chair, amongst others, contributes to the interdisciplinary Master degree program “Middle East Studies”. The curricula, detailed descriptions and the research foci of the Erlangen Middle East research is available on our MA program’s website (only in German).
Since its foundation in 1984, the Chair frequently conducts (international) research projects and offers thereby Ph.D. positions. In addition, we work with community colleges (Volkshochschule), media, local and national government/s to share our expertise with the wider public.