Dr. Pavel Brunssen
Dr. Pavel Brunssen is a Research Associate and Alfred Landecker Lecturer at the Research Center on Antigypsyism at Heidelberg University. Brunssen’s research interests include antisemitism, antigypsyism, memory cultures, European soccer, and fan cultures. He holds a PhD in German Studies from the University of Michigan, where he received the Marshall Weinberg Prize for his dissertation on “The Making of ‘Jew Clubs’: Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Soccer and Fan Cultures.” Brunssen also earned a graduate certificate in Judaic Studies and a Graduate Teacher Certificate from the University of Michigan.
Brunssen is the author of The Making of “Jew Clubs”: Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures (2025, Indiana University Press), Antisemitismus in Fußball-Fankulturen: Der Fall RB Leipzig (2021, Beltz Juventa) and the co-editor of Football and Discrimination: Antisemitism and Beyond (2021, Routledge) and Antigypsyism and Film / Antiziganismus und Film (2020, Heidelberg University Publishing). (You can learn more about his books here). Prior to his PhD, he earned an M.A. from the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technische Universität Berlin and a B.A. in social work and social pedagogy from the Hochschule Düsseldorf.
In addition to his academic work, Brunssen co-founded and was the editor-in-chief of ‘Transparent,’ a magazine that examines the political aspects of soccer fan cultures in Germany. Brunssen presented his research at numerous international conferences in Europe, North America, and New Zealand, and has published book chapters as well as articles in newspapers such as Das Parlament and Weser Kurier. His work has been featured by various media outlets, including The Jerusalem Post, Zeit Online, ZDF, SKY, Sportschau, WDR, and Taz.