Reinhard Heinisch

Reinhard Heinisch is Professor of Austrian Politics in Comparative Perspective and chair of the Department of Political Science and Sociology at the University of Salzburg, Austria. Receiving his degrees from the Universities of Vienna (BA 1986), Virginia Tech (MA 1989), and Michigan State (PhD 1994), he subsequently served as Professor of Political Science and director of International Studies with the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown (1994-2009) and the University of Pittsburgh, Center of European Studies (1994-2009), where he continues to be an affiliated faculty member. His main research interests are centered on comparative populism, Euroscepticism, political parties, the radical right and democracy. His research has appeared in leading journals such as Party Politics, West European Politics, Democratization, Representation, Comparative European Politics, as well as Politics and Religion among many others. His latest book publication, an edited volume, is titled The People and the Nation: Populism and Ethno-Territorial Politics in Europe (Routledge 2019). In 2019, he was part of a team of researchers securing a large European Union project grant for the study of populism and counterstrategies. Reinhard Heinisch has lectured extensively internationally, including in China, where he regularly teaches at Renmin University of China in Beijing. He is also the director of the National Working Group on Democracy by the Austrian Research Association and past president of the Austrian Political Science Association. In 2017, he was awarded by the Austrian parliament the Austrian Science Prize by the Lupac Foundation for his research on democracy.