About
Pavel Brunssen joined the University of Michigan as a PhD student in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures in 2018 where he is also pursuing a graduate certificate in Judaic Studies at the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies. Before that, he earned his MA from the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technische Universität Berlin and his BA in social work and social pedagogy from the Hochschule Düsseldorf.
Among the main areas of his research interests are antisemitism and antigypsyism in European soccer fan cultures. Pavel is the author of Antisemitismus in Fußball-Fankulturen: Der Fall RB Leipzig (2021, Beltz Juventa), in which he analyzes the ressentiment against the German soccer club RB Leipzig. His book is an innovative and thought-provoking case study of antisemitism and fan cultures in contemporary Germany. The book shows that although RB Leipzig is not addressed as Jewish, the ressentiment-based forms of communication nevertheless express various antisemitic stereotypes regarding modernity, globalization, and inauthenticity.
Pavel is the co-editor of Football and Discrimination: Antisemitism and Beyond (2021, Routledge), which takes a close look at discrimination in soccer in order to illuminate our understanding of the interaction between sport and wider society, politics and culture, particularly in terms of the (re)production of identity.
In 2011, Pavel co-founded a magazine called ‘Transparent’ which focuses on the political aspects of soccer fan cultures. Until 2017, Pavel was editor in chief of ‘Transparent’. In addition, he presented at numerous international conferences and has written book chapters and articles for newspapers such as Das Parlament, Weser Kurier, or Jungle World. Among others, Pavel’s work has been featured by German broadcasting stations and newspapers such as 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. He is the co-editor of the edited volume Antigypsyism and Film / Antiziganismus und Film (2020, Heidelberg University Publishing) that brings together international scholars and experts on the issue of antigypsyism in film for the first time.
Fields of Study:
- Antisemitism
- Antigypsyism
- Sport Fan Cultures
- Memory Cultures
