Thomas Zittel is DAAD Visiting Associate Professor of Government at Cornell University. His research focuses on the structures, the behavioral and the normative foundations of modern representative democracy with an emphasis on issues of electronic democracy, local electoral campaigns, party government, European integration, and political reform. His most recent publications are Individualized Campaigns in Mixed Member Systems. Candidates in the German Federal Elections 2005 (West European Politics 31, 2008: 978-1003; with Thomas Gschwend), Neue Formen der digitalen Wählerkommunikation im gemischten Wahlsystem? - Eine quantitative und qualitative Untersuchung persönlicher Webseiten im Deutschen Bundestag (Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft 18, 2008: 183-206), Participatory Democracy and Political Participation: Can Participatory Engineering Bring Citizens Back In? (Routledge/ECPR Studies in European Political Science Series, 2007; co-edited with Dieter Fuchs), and Comparative Legislative Behavior (Oxford Handbook of Political Institutions, Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 455-473; with Eric Uslaner). Current research projects examine the legislative behavior of German MPs, the campaign behavior of candidates at the local level in comparative perspective, and the candidate selection of political parties in comparative perspective. Zittel also currently serves as project director in the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) at Mannheim, Germany.

Zittel studied political science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and at the University of Mannheim in Germany, where he received his PhD and where he completed his Habilitation with a venia legendi for political science. Zittel received a number of international fellowships such as a Fernand Braudel Fellowship from the European University Institute at Florence, a John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellowship from the Minda de Gunzburg Centre for European Studies at Harvard University and a Research Fellowship from the Max-Planck Centre for Social Research in Cologne. He is also the recipient of numerous research grants from the German National Science Foundation, the Fritz-Thyssen-Foundation and the National Science Foundation. Prior to coming to Cornell, Zittel held appointments at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, University of Duisburg-Essen, and University of Mannheim.

Curriculum Vitae

Courses Taught:
Govt 3427: German Politics
Govt 6564: Comparative Political Representation