Dr. Thomas Demmelhuber

Biography

Thomas Demmelhuber has been a Professor of Politics and Society in the Middle East at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg since October 2015. In 2015, he was also appointed a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (Natolin). Previously, he served as a Junior Professor of Political Science focusing on Politics and the Internet at the University of Hildesheim from 2012 to 2015. Demmelhuber has edited numerous books, notable works include the 2018 Routledge Handbook on European Neighbourhood Policy, alongside Tobias Schumacher and Andreas Marchetti, as well as the 2020 book on Authoritarian Gravity Centres: A Cross-Regional Study of Authoritarian Promotion Diffusion, co-authored with Marianne Kneuer. In 2025, he released a comprehensive Handbook on the Arabian Peninsula, in collaboration with Nadine Scharfenort. He actively contributes to several scientific associations and research institutes, including being a board member of the German Working Group on the Middle East (DAVO) from 2018 to 2025 and serving on the advisory board of the Orient-Institut in Beirut since 2020. In 2024, he was appointed as a Fellow of the Bavarian Alliance for Peace, Conflict and Security Research (FOKS). At FAU, he has participated in various committees including being a senator since 2023 and chair of the Doctoral Committee of the Faculty of Arts from 2018 to 2024.

Research Interests