About
Boris Vormann is professor of politics and the head of the politics concentration at Bard College Berlin. He is also principal investigator at Freie Universität Berlin's Graduate School for North American Studies, co-editor of Amerikastudien/American Studies and an associated researcher at the Chaire de Recherche du Canada en Études Québécoises et Canadiennes (CRÉQC), Université du Québec à Montréal.
Vormann has held visiting positions at the CUNY Graduate Center, Harvard University, New York University and Sciences Po Paris. He has lectured widely, in Germany and abroad, including talks and seminars in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, and Jordan. His research and teaching concentrate on key aspects of global governance, focusing specifically on the relationship between urbanization and globalization; changes in state-market relations and federalism as well as nations and nationalism.
Vormann is a regular commentator on public policy debates for different media outlets (incl. ARD, Deutsche Welle, Deutschlandfunk, and NPR Berlin). His most recent books are The Contours of the Illiberal State (Campus, 2019), Die Krise der Demokratie (Aufbau, 2017), Global Port Cities in North America (Routledge, 2015) and a handbook on politics and policy in the United States for a German-speaking audience (Springer VS, 2016). Vormann was the first political scientist to receive the Fulbright American Studies Award from the German Fulbright Commission in 2015. His current project examines the role of states in building the urban infrastructures of expanding global trade networks across the globe.
Photo M. Schloesser
Academic Positions
Since 09/2017
Professor of Politics
Head, Politics Concentration
Bard College Berlin
Since 11/2018
Principal Investigator
Graduate School of North American Studies
Freie Universität Berlin
Since 2011
Associated Researcher
Chaire de Recherche du Canada en Études Québécoises et Canadiennes (CRÉQC)
Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
Research Visits and Earlier Appointments
10/2018-11/2018
DAAD Visiting Professor
Deutsches Haus
New York University, NY
10/2015-08/2017
Visiting Professor
Dept. of Political Science, John-F.-Kennedy Institute
Freie Universität Berlin
01/2017-05/2017
Lecturer
NYU Berlin
New York University
09/2015-10/2015
Fulbright Fellow
Center for Place, Culture and Politics
CUNY Graduate Center
07/2015-09/2015
Associate Scholar
Mahindra Humanities Center / Urban Theory Lab
Harvard University
Postdoctoral Fellowships
04/2013-09/2015
Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer
Department of Political Science
Graduate School of North American Studies
John-F.-Kennedy Institute
Freie Universität Berlin
10/2014-09/2015
Group Leader NYLON Berlin, Einstein Group
Georg-Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
03/2014-04/2014
Visiting Researcher
Institute for Public Knowledge
New York University, New York
Education
04/2017
M.Ed. Master of Education
ZI Dahlem School of Education
Freie Universität Berlin
10/2009-03/2013
Ph.D. in Political Science (summa cum laude)
Graduate School of North American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
09/2011-05/2012
Visiting doctoral candidate in Political Science and Sociology
New York University, New York
2011-2014
Research Member
NYLON / Einstein Group
New York University / London School of Economics and Political Science / Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
10/2004-09/2009
M.A. in Cultural Studies, Literature, and Linguistics
(American / French and Romance Studies)
Technische Universität, Dresden
09/2007-05/2008
Visiting Fulbright fellow in International Relations & Diplomacy
Seton Hall University, New Jersey