Thomas Schmidinger 
was born in 1974 and is a political scientist as well as a
social and cultural anthropologist. Since 1998 he attended study visits
and journeys to various Middle East nations and Arabic, Turkish and
Spanish courses in Cairo, Tunis, Istanbul and Guatemala. He
has a lecturing position at the Vienna
University's Institute for
Political Science and at the University of Applied Science Upper Austria
; board memberships at LEEZA (an aid organization
active in Iraq and Turkey). Schmidinger is secretary general of the Austrian
Association for Kurdish Studies and member of the editorial
board of the Journal Kurdische Studien. Since its foundation in 2013 he
is also in the Editorial
Review Board of the international peer-reviewed journal Kurdish
Studies.
He is a member
of the Austrian
Society for Political Science, the Sudan Studies Association and
reviewer
for the Austrian
Journal of Political Science (ÖZP)
, the Austrian Journal of Sociology
(ÖZS), the Journal of Religion in Europe, NECSUS
- European Journal of Media Studies
and
the Austrian Exchange
Service (ÖAD).
2009 until 2010 he was President of the university lecturers union IG
Externe LektorInnen und freie WissenschafterInnen and he was a member of the Senate and member of the
Works
council for the Academic Staff
of the University
of Vienna
.
2010/2011 he was Research Fellow at the Center
for Austrian Studies at the University of Minnesota and in
2012 at the Department of Political Science at
the University
of Prishtina.
Since 2014, he has been working on various research projects at
different research institutions on topics related to jihadist
radicalization, Muslim communities in Europe, and the Middle East. The
focus is on Kurdistan, Syria and Iraq, as well as religious minorities
in the region. In addition, he is active in various fields of adult
education and serves as a guest lecturer at universities in Iraq and
Turkey.
Contact: thomas.schmidinger@univie.ac.at
List of Publications
Selected publications:
‘Muhajirun’ from Austria. Why they left to join ISIS and why they don’t return
Article on Austrian Jihadis, co-authored with Veronika Hofinger (IRKS).
Journal for Deradicalisation, Spring 2020, No. 22
Afrin and the Race for the
Azaz Corridor
Syria Source, Atlantic Council, February 23, 2016
Kurds fight for
selfdetermination amid civil war
Salih Muslim is co-president of the Democratic Union Party
(PYD), a Syria-based Kurdish party fighting for self-determination. The
PYD is a sister party of the leftwing Turkish-based Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK). The party is the ruling force in the Kurdish areas of
Syria and took over three enclaves with Kurdish majorities in 2012.
Green Left Weekly, 5 February 2014
Unionism and Revolution in the
Arab World
This paper presents an outline of trade unionism in the Arab world and
its
role in the revolutions of 2011. Without going into too much detail, I
will present
an overview and explore the examples of Tunisia and Egypt, where unions
played
an important role in the revolutionary process, while also relying on a
literature
survey and qualitative interviews with trade union leaders and
intellectuals from
Egypt, Syria, and Libya.
book contribution from:
Friedrich, Wiebke / Schwarz, Christoph / Voigt, Sebastian (eds.):
Gewerkschaften im demokratischen Prozess: 10 internationale
Beiträge. Trade Unions in the Democratic Process 10
international Contributions.
Düsseldorf, 2013, S. 27 – 52
Spring in Civil War
As of now the ‚Arab Spring’ in Syria has
become a civil war that is increasingly showing signs
of denominationalism. Under these circumstances the collapse of the
Assad-Regime will not
necessarily result in democracy.
OBSERVER: A Journal on threatened Human Rights Defenders in the
Philippines, Volume 4, Number 1, June 2012
Islam, Migration, and the
Muslim Communities in Europe: History, Legal Framework, and
Organizations
A chapter of the book 'Looming Shadows. Migration and
Integration at a Time of Upheaval. European and American Perspectives
, edited together with Vedran Džihić, provides an overview of the
Muslim communities in
Europe, their ethnic and religious background, their social, economic
and legal status, and their organizations.
Published in the book series of the
Center
for Transatlantic Relations at Brookings
Institution Press, Washington DC, December 2011
Tyrants and Terrorists:
Reflections on the Connection between
Totalitarianism, Neo-liberalism, Civil War and the Failure of the State
in Iraq and Sudan
Failed states that foster warlords and terrorists are now an
increasing
challenge to state stability across the Middle East. This paper uses
the case
studies of Iraq and Sudan to show how a neo-liberal policy of
dismantling the
public sector by an illegitimate regime that combines tribalisation
with the
arbitrary use of power leads to dramatic weakening of the state and an
increase in warlordism.
Civil Wars 11 (2009): 3, 359 — 379
Internationalism made in
Austria
Review of Fritz Kellers book 'Gelebter Internationalismus.
Österreichs Linke und der algerische Widerstand (1958 - 1963)'
Austrian Studies Newsletter, Fall 2011
Yemen: State Failure by
Regime Support?
This article considers the causes of conflict in
Yemen and poses the following question: can the
western states’ strategy of providing financial,
logistic and military support to the government
under President Ali Abdullah Saleh contribute to
stabilizing the country, or could it weaken the
Yemenite state instead?
Orient, II/2010
Richard Buchta and the Kadi of
Khartoum
The pictures of the Austrian traveler Richard Buchta from
Sudan, his lost publication and the debate in the SSA-Bulletin
Sudan Studies Association Bulletin Vol. 28, NO.2, Fall 2010
Neuland: bringing refugees and
Austrian residents together
Paper with Margerita Piatti about 'Neuland': The main issue of
the project 'Neuland' (German: new ground) is to
find a way of communication
between Austrian residents and refugees in rural areas of Lower
Austria.
Proceedings of cAIR10, the first Conference on Applied Interculturality
Research (Graz, Austria, 7-10 April 2010)
Suppressed but not defeated:
Unionism in Sudan
Sudan Studies Association Bulletin Vol. 27, No. 2, May-June 2009
A son’s death, a father’s centenary
The Kreiskys and postwar Austria
Austrian Studies Newsletter Vol. 23, No.1, Spring 2011
Brigitte Spreitzer´s psychoanalytic theory of art
Interview with Brigitte Spreitzer
Austrian Studies Newsletter Vol. 23, No.1, Spring 2011
European Strategies of the New
Right - the example of the FPÖ
The European politics of the FPÖ (Freiheitliche
Partei Österreichs / Freedom Party of Austria) is not only a
mirror of the entire diversity of a quite contradictory and in parts
very tactical relationship of the entire New Right towards "Europe".
aus: Abramsky, Kolya: Restructuring and Resistance, Diverse Voices of
Struggle in Western Europa
United Kingdom, 2001
Sikularizm
Contribution to a Kurdish book on Secularism and Religion (in
Sorani).
Faruq Rafiq: Sikularizm wa Dīn
Suleymania, 2012
El Irán de Mahmud
Ahmedineyad: ¿República revolucionaria o
neoliberalismo islámico?
La muerte del gran ayatola disidente Hossein Alí
Montazeri, de
87 años y de la era Jomeini, activó estos
días las protestas de los reformistas
iraníes, en medio del clima represivo instalado luego de la
cuestionada reelección de Mahmud Ahmadineyad.
Pulso (Bolivia), 27 de diciembre al 9 de enero de 2010
min bagdhad ila or yahuda
Tariq al-Shaab (Arabic, Iraq) January 2007
La diglaua barau donau
Beyani (Kurdish/Sorani, Iraq) No. 12, 23th of April 2006