Dr. Pavel Brunssen is a Research Associate and Alfred Landecker Lecturer at the Research Center on Antigypsyism at Heidelberg University. His research examines antisemitism and antigypsyism in contemporary European societies, with a particular focus on popular cultures, memory studies, and public spaces. He is especially interested in how these forms of discrimination are produced, reproduced, and contested in everyday practices and collective contexts, including football, carnival, hip-hop, and film.
He received his PhD in German Studies from the University of Michigan, where his dissertation, The Making of “Jew Clubs”: Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures, was awarded the Marshall Weinberg Prize. He also holds 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” (Indiana University Press, 2025) and Antisemitismus in Fußball-Fankulturen: Der Fall RB Leipzig (Beltz Juventa, 2021), and co-editor of Football and Discrimination: Antisemitism and Beyond (Routledge, 2021) and Antigypsyism and Film / Antiziganismus und Film (Heidelberg University Publishing, 2020). Prior to his PhD, he completed an M.A. at the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technische Universität Berlin and a B.A. in social work and social pedagogy at the Hochschule Düsseldorf.
Beyond academia, he engages in public scholarship on discrimination, popular culture, and sport, working with media, sport organizations, and minority self-organizations to inform debate and practice. He has presented his work at international conferences across Europe, North America, and New Zealand, and has contributed to public discussions. His research has been featured by media including The Jerusalem Post, Zeit Online, ZDF, SKY, Sportschau, WDR, and taz. He also co-founded and served as editor-in-chief of Transparent, a magazine examining the political dimensions of football fan cultures in Germany.