
Pavel Brunssen
Pavel Brunssen is a PhD candidate in German Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he is also pursuing a graduate certificate in Judaic Studies at the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, as well as a Graduate Teacher Certificate. Before that, he earned an M.A. from the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technische Universität Berlin and an B.A. in social work and social pedagogy from the Hochschule Düsseldorf.
Among the main areas of his research interests are antisemitism, antigypsyism, memory cultures, European soccer and fan cultures.
Pavel is the author of Antisemitismus in Fußball-Fankulturen: Der Fall RB Leipzig (2021, Beltz Juventa) and the co-editor of Football and Discrimination: Antisemitism and Beyond (2021, Routledge). (You can learn more about his books here).
In 2011, Pavel co-founded a magazine called ‘Transparent’ which focuses on the political aspects of soccer fan cultures in Germany. Until 2017, he was editor-in-chief of ‘Transparent’. Pavel presented his reserach at numerous international conferences in Europe, North America, and New Zealand. He has published several book chapters, and has written articles for newspapers such as Das Parlament and Weser Kurier. Among others, his work has been featured by broadcasting stations and newspapers such as The Jerusalem Post, Zeit Online, ZDF, SKY, Sportschau, WDR, and Taz.
Pavel continues to study the portrayal of Roma in film. In September 2017, the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma published his review of the Children and Youth Film ‘Nellys Abenteuer’ (Nelly’s Adventure) which was part of a public debate in Germany about antigypsyism and film. In this context, Pavel was invited to discuss the film in TV after its broadcasting by the German TV-station Südwestrundfunk. In 2018, Pavel co-organized a conference on antigypsyism and film, which led to the edited volume Antigypsyism and Film / Antiziganismus und Film (2020, Heidelberg University Publishing), which Pavel co-edited. This books brings together international scholars and experts on the issue of antigypsyism in film for the first time.