معرفی
Matthias Revers is Associate Professor of Political Communication at the School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds, and Interim Professor (part-time) for the Chair of Communication Studies at the University of Hamburg. His academic career spans multiple institutions including the University of Frankfurt and University of Graz, with a PhD in Sociology from SUNY-Albany (2014). He maintains significant affiliations as a Faculty Fellow at Yale University's Center for Cultural Sociology and as a former Fulbright scholar.
- University of Leeds (2018-present): Associate Professor of Political Communication
- University of Hamburg (2023-present): Interim Professor (part-time)
- University of Frankfurt: Postdoctoral researcher and lecturer
- University of Graz: Postdoctoral researcher and lecturer
Revers' research spans political communication, cultural sociology, and media studies with a particular focus on political polarization as both structural condition and lived social reality. His groundbreaking work on performative polarization describes how public displays of antagonism shape affective boundaries and influence social interaction. He has developed the concept of micropolarization to examine how political divisions permeate everyday interactions among friends, families, and strangers. His research combines qualitative, quantitative, computational, and conceptual approaches to understand polarization across multiple scales - from institutional dynamics to interpersonal communication.
His current research portfolio includes leading projects on depolarization in climate politics (DEPOLCLIMATE), TikTok's role in political polarization (POLARIS), and the COST Action Redressing Radical Polarisation (CA22165) where he co-leads Working Group 1. These projects investigate how depolarization can be fostered in climate discussions, how the New Right mobilizes affective polarization through TikTok, and develop culturally embedded understandings of affective conflict across Europe.
- Faculty Fellow at the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University
- Fulbright scholar
- Co-author of influential working papers on polarization including 'Affect and Meaning: A Cultural Sociological Perspective on Polarization'
Revers actively supervises PhD students across multiple institutions and maintains collaborations with researchers at LMU Munich, University of Mannheim, and University of Konstanz on speech norms and viewpoint tolerance at German universities. His teaching encompasses history of communication, political communication, and PGR training at the University of Leeds. He has developed significant research partnerships through the DEPOLCLIMATE project (with Lone Sørensen and Michael Brüggemann) and POLARIS project (with Hendrik Meyer, Lasse Rodeck, and Julia Niemann-Lenz), creating interdisciplinary research networks focused on understanding and addressing political polarization.
