On the eve of the German federal election, a panel of experts will weigh in on the various issues concerning German voters, the legacy of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel, the potential impact of this election on the EU and Germany’s relationship with the U.S., and the significance of the Green Party mounting their first ever candidate for the Chancellorship.
Join the American Council on Germany for this discussion, moderated by ACG President Steven E. Sokol, hosted by the University of Pittsburgh European Studies Center and the Jean Monnet in the USA series, an initiative of several EU-funded Universities across the United States. The panelists are Dr. Kai Arzheimer, Professor of Political Science at the University of Mainz; Prof. Marcel Lewandowsky, DAAD Visiting Assistant Professor at the Center for European Studies at the University of Florida; Dr. Jana Puglierin, Head of ECFR’s Berlin office and a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations; and Dr. Jae-Jae Spoon, Professor of Political Science and Director of the European Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh.
This event is hosted by the University of Pittsburgh European Studies Center.
Dr. Kai Arzheimer is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Mainz. His main research interests are the comparative analysis of micro data and comparative political sociology, elections and electoral behavior, extreme right/radical right/populist right parties in Europe, and German politics. During 2017-18, he was the Hannah Arendt Visiting Chair in German and European Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy & Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. From 2006-2009, he was a Lecturer in German and West European Politics/DAAD Lektor in the Department of Government at the University of Essex.
Marcel Lewandowsky is a DAAD Visiting Assistant Professor at the Center for European Studies at the University of Florida. His research and teaching focuses on comparative politics with special regard to parties and party systems, populism in Europe and the political system of Germany. He received his doctoral degree in 2013 with a study on German regional election campaigns from the University of Bonn, Germany. From 2012 to 2013, he was a lecturer at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg, and from 2013 until summer 2019, Prof. Lewandowsky worked as a lecturer at the University of the Federal Armed Forces, Hamburg. Prior to his application at the University of Florida, he served as a professor pro tempore at the NRW School of Governance of the University of Duisburg-Essen.
Dr. Jana Puglierin has been the head of ECFR’s Berlin office and a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations since January 2020. Before joining ECFR, Puglierin headed the Alfred von Oppenheim Center for European Policy Studies at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). Prior to this, she was an advisor on disarmament, arms control, and non-proliferation in the German Bundestag, where she also worked on matters relating to German and European foreign and security policy. Between 2003 and 2010, she was a researcher and lecturer to the chair of political science and contemporary history as well as in the program for North American studies at the University of Bonn. She was also an associate at Stiftung Neue Verantwortung in Berlin from October 2010 until October 2011. Dr. Puglierin earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in political science, international and European law, and sociology from the Friedrich-Wilhelms University of Bonn.
Dr. Jae-Jae Spoon is a Professor of Political Science and Director of the European Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh. She is co-editor of the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties (JEPOP) and Research & Politics (R&P). Her research focuses on comparative electoral behavior primarily in Europe. She is interested in understanding political party strategies and their outcomes for the party, its elected officials, and voters, and how party type and size, institutions, and context influence parties’ decision‐making at both the domestic and European levels. Professor Spoon received her PhD from the University of Michigan in 2005. Before coming to Pittsburgh, she taught at the University of Iowa and the University of North Texas and was a visiting researcher at the University of Mannheim.
