I am Professor of Comparative Austrian Politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Salzburg, which I also chaired from 2009 to 2024. Previously, I was a faculty member of the University of Pittsburgh (1994-2009), where I have remained an affiliate of the Center of European Studies. I received my PhD from Michigan State University and my MA from Virginia Tech (you find the link to my university page here and a Pdf of my professional CV here.)
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My Research
My main research interests are centered on comparative populism, political parties, the radical right, and democracy. My research has appeared in journals such as The Journal of Common Market Studies, Political Studies, The European Journal of Political Research, Party Politics, West European Politics, and Democratization among others. My book publications in English include Understanding Populist Organization: The West European Radical Right (Palgrave 2016), The People and the Nation: Populism and Ethno-Territorial Politics in Europe (Routledge 2019), Political Populism: Handbook of Concepts, Questions and Strategies of Research (Nomos 2021), and, most recently, Politicizing Islam in Austria: The Far-Right Impact in the Twenty-First Century (Rutgers‘ University Press 2024).
Several grants have supported my research, including a Marie Curie fellowship and an EU Horizon 2020 grant titled Populism and Civic Engagement (PaCE). More recently, I have become interested in exploring the relationship between populism and conspiracy theories. Thus, funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) has allowed me to launch a new project on conspiracy theories and conspiracy mentality. Using surveys and survey experiments in select European countries, we investigate people’s susceptibility to conspiracy narratives and try to assess the role of political factors in explaining conspiracy thinking.
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Teaching & Third Mission
In my teaching in Europe and the US, I have focused on Comparative and European Politics but also covered Latin America and the US. Since 2014 I have been teaching regularly in Beijing at Renmin University of China. Some of my most meaningful experiences were teaching service learning courses in rural Bolivia and spending a semester onboard a ship when teaching for the Semester at Sea program.
Working on topical issues, I often comment on Austrian, European, and especially also US politics, typically in Austrian media. But I have been asked by the BBC, the Washington Post, NPR, CNN, and many others. Op-ed commentaries and articles of mine have appeared in Open Democracy, Huffington.Post, the LSE Blog, and Foreign Affairs.
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Beyond Europe and Populism
I continue to follow closely, and remain very much connected to US politics and also Latin America, especially Bolivia. I take every opportunity to return to these two homes away from home.
Reinhard Heinisch 