Starting in Fall, 2015, the Political Scientist David Wineroither will be taking over as the Visiting Professor of Austrian Studies. Dr. Wineroither was chosen following a national search in Austria. He is familiar with the University of Alberta: in 2006 he was in residence there as the Austrian Doctoral Research Fellow associated with the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies. Since then, Dr. Wineroither has been active as a member of the Executive Committee of the Wirth Alumni Network. He has also been a guest at the CenterAustria at the University of New Orleans (USA), one of the other seven Austrian centers and institutes, in addition to the Wirth Institute, financially supported by the Austrian Ministry of Science, Research, and Economy (BMWFW). In Alberta, Dr. Wineroither will be teaching courses related to his research specialty, Comparative Politics. He will also be teaching an introductory course on Austrian politics and society. His teaching and research interests include political preference formation in postindustrial societies, political leadership, good governance, and political decision-making and communications in European democracies.
Dr. Wineroither joins the faculty in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta following a stay as a postdoctoral fellow in Comparative European Politics in a joint appointment at the Center for Social Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the National University of Public Service in Budapest. At the latter institution he led a doctoral research seminar on political accountability in western democracy. Dr. Wineroither has also been a guest researcher affiliated with the Nationalism Studies Department of the Central European University (also in Budapest). He has been an external lecturer in Comparative Politics in the Department of Political Science of the University of Innsbruck in Austria.
Dr. Wineroither earned his doctoral degree from the University of Innsbruck in Political Science in 2008, completing a dissertation with distinction on the topic of the role of the Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel (in office 2000-2007). His supervisors were Anton Pelinka and Fritz Plasser. The dissertation was published in 2009 by LIT Verlag as Kanzlermacht - Machtkanzler?: Die Regierung Schüssel im historischen und internationalen Vergleich. His master's degree, also from the University of Innsbruck and awarded with distinction, was in Political Science, with minors in History and Philosophy.
Dr. Wineroither's current research project is titled "Democratic Convergence in the Era of Globalization: the Pivotal Case of Austria." A member of the Austrian Political Science Association and its "Political Leadership" section, Dr. Wineroither has published extensively both in academic and popular venues. His work has appeared frequently Austrian newspapers such as Der Standard, Die Presse, and Wiener Zeitung. His book on twentieth-century political leadership in Germany Herrschen lernt sich leicht, regieren schwer appeared with Peter Lang publishers in 2007. His co-edited collection on Austrian democracy in comparative perspective was published by Nomos in 2012. Dr. Wineroither has also co-edited volumes and special collections of journals on politics and biography, political leadership, and Upper Austrian politics, to name just a few of the themes these works addressed.
At the University of Alberta, in addition to teaching in the Departments of Political Science and Modern Languages and Cultural Studies, Dr. Wineroither will be affiliated with the Wirth Institute. As a member of the institute's Academic Advisory Board, he will assist and advise in the development of institute programs and work with the local and national Austro-Canadian communities. The University of Alberta is also home to one of Canada's five EU Centres of Excellence (EUCE) and Dr. Wineroither's expertise fits in well with that unit's core theme "Citizenship, Sovereignty and Governance." The EUCE director and Jean Monnet Chair Lori Thorlakson, also a Political Scientist, will collaborate with the new Austrian Visiting Professor as well.