Mag. Dr. Thomas Schmidinger

Academic Position:

Associate Professor at the University of Kurdistan Hewlêr (UKH) in Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan) and Lecturer at the University of Vienna and the University of Applied Sciences FH Upper Austria

Career:

  • 2024: Program Director of the Department for Politics and International Relations at the University of Kurdistan Hewlêr (UKH).
  • 2023: Associate Professor at the University of Kurdistan Hewlêr (UKH)
  • 2022-23: Guest Professor at the University of Kurdistan Hewlêr (UKH)
  • 2022: Guest Lecturer at the National University of Mongolia in Ulan-Bator (Mongolia)
  • 2016-17: Academic Staff at the Department of Applied Sociology of Law and Criminology (IRKS)
  • 2016: Guest Lecturer at the Mülkiye (Faculty of Political Science), University of Ankara (Turkey)
  • 2014: Doctorate at the Department of Political Science (University of Vienna)
  • 2012: Research Fellow at the University of Prishtina (Kosovo)
  • 2011-2015: Lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences Vorarlberg
  • 2010-2011: Research Fellow at the Center for Austrian Studies at the University of Minnesota (USA)
  • 2003: Magister at the University of Vienna
  • 1995: Studienberechtigungsprüfung (University entrance qualification exam) for studying Political Science and Social and Cultural Anthropology (back then still "Völkerkunde") in the second education pathway

Other Activities:

  • Since 2023: Member of the Advisory Committee at the Center for Peace and Human Security (CPHS) at the American University of Kurdistan in Dohuk (Iraq)
  • 2016-2017: Member of the Curricular Working Group for Islamic-Theological Studies at the University of Vienna
  • 2015-16: Mittelbauvertreter (Representative for the junior faculty) at the Senat of the University of Vienna
  • since 2013: Co-Editor of the Vienna Yearbook of Kurdish Studies (Jahrbuch für Kurdische Studien)

Most Important Publications:

  • „Wenn der Herrgott das Wichtigste auf der Welt ist“. Katholischer Traditionalismus und Extremismus in Österreich. Wien: Mandelbaum 2023.
  • The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. Between a Rock and a Hard Place. London: Translational Press London 2020.
  • Sudan. Unvollendete Revolutionen in einem brüchigen Land. Wien: Bahoe Books 2020.
  • Kosovo. Geschichte und Gegenwart eines Parastaates. Wien: Bahoe Books 2019.
  • The World Has Forgotten Us: Sinjar and the Islamic States Genocide of the Yezidis
    London: Pluto Press 2022. [available also in German, Arabic, and Kurdish]
  • Battle for the Mountain of the Kurds: Self-Determination and Ethnic Cleansing in Rojava 
    Oakland: PM Press 2019. [available also in German, Arabic, and Italian]
  • Jihadismus. Ideologie, Prävention und Deradikalisierung. Wien: Mandelbaum 2015.
  • Rojava: Revolution, War and the Future of Syria's Kurds. London: Pluto Press 2018 [available also in German, Turkish, Arabic, Kurdish, and Spanish]
  • Gora. Slawischsprachige Muslime zwischen Kosovo, Albanien, Mazedonien und Diaspora. Wien: Wiener Verlag für Sozialforschung 2013.

Key Areas of Research:

  • Kurdistan
  • Syria
  • Iraq
  • Sudan
  • Kosovo
  • Religion & State
  • Religious Extremisms