Thomas Paster
Vita
- Education
- Fellowships, Grants, and Prizes
- Professional Experience
- Invited Talks and Conference Presentations
- Teaching
- Methods Training
- Languages
Education | |
| 06/2009 | European University Institute (EUI), Florence
PhD in Political and Social Sciences Thesis Title: Choosing Lesser Evils: The Role of Business in the Development of the German Welfare State from the 1880s to the 1990s Examination Committee: Prof. Colin Crouch (Warwick Business School), chair Prof. Sven Steinmo (EUI), main supervisor Prof. Martin Rhodes (Univ. of Denver), external co-supervisor Prof. Anke Hassel (Hertie School of Governance, Berlin), external member of the committee |
| 10/2005 | European University Institute (EUI), Florence
Master of Research |
| 10/2002-08/2004 | Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS), Vienna
Department of Political Science Postgraduate Program in European Integration Studies |
| 12/2002 | University of Vienna
Mag. phil. (Austrian equivalent to M.A.) in Political Science. Passed with distinction |
| 08/1999-07/2000 | University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Department of Political Science Erasmus/Socrates exchange student |
Fellowships, Grants, and Prizes | |
| 11/2010 | Erwin Wenzl Prize 2010 for an extraordinary PhD Thesis (awarded by the St. Magdalena Educational Centre, Linz, Austria) |
| 09/2007-08/2008 | European University Institute (EUI), PhD Thesis Finishing Grant |
| 09/2007 | Austrian Political Science Association (ÖGPW), Mobility Grant to present a paper at the ECPR General Conference, Pisa. |
| 06/2005-12/2006 | European University Institute: several travel grants to carry out field work in Austria and Germany |
| 09/2004-08/2007 | Austrian Ministry of Science (BMWF), postgraduate scholarship to study at the EUI |
| 10/2002-08/2004 | Institute for Adcanced Studies (IHS), Vienna. Graduate student scholarship |
| 07-09/2002 | University of Vienna, Fellowship for conducting research abroad |
| 09/1999-07/2000 | Erasmus student exchange grant |
Professional Experience | |
| 09/2009-today | Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG), Cologne
Research Fellow |
| 05/2009-07/2009 | Electroinc indexing work for the EUI Library. |
| 01/2009-06/2009 | Research assistance to Prof. Sven Steinmo (EUI) for a book project on evolutionary theory |
| 11/2007-12/2007 | Research assistance to Prof. Cathie Jo Martin (Boston University) for a book project on employer politics |
| 09/2005-07/2009 | Research software assistance for the EUI Computing Service (user support for bibliographic software) |
| 10/2005-06/2009 | Active Member of the Social Policy Working Group at the European University Institute |
| 01/2006 | Involvement in the selection of new students at the European University Institute (EUI) |
| 05/2004 | Co-organizer of the Powi04 graduate conference of the Austrian Political Science Association (ÖGPW) |
Invited Talks and Conference Presentations | |
| 06/2012 | "Business and Welfare State Development: Why Did Employers Accept Social Reforms?" Paper presented at the conference "Cross-disciplinary Perspectives at Welfare State Development," organized by the NordWel network, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, 14-16 June. |
| 03/2012 | "Why did German Employers Accept Social Reforms?" Paper presented at the 19th International Conference of Europeanists, Boston, March 22-24. |
| 12/2011 | "Why did Austrian Business Oppose Welfare Cuts? The Austrian employer federation and welfare state retrenchment, 2000-2006" Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Austrian Political Science Association (ÖGPW), held at the University of Salzburg, Austria, 2 December. |
| 09/2011 | "The Decreasing Returns of Social Compromise: The Role of Business in the Transformation of the German Welfare State." Paper presented at the 9th ESPANet conference, Valencia, Spain, 8-10 September. |
| 07/2011 | "Will die Wirtschaft Sozialpolitik? Die Rolle der Arbeitgeber in der Entstehung des deutschen Sozialstaats" [Does Business want Social Policy? The Role of Employers in the Development of the German Welfare State] Invited Talk at the University of Bamberg, Graduate College "Markets and Social Systems in Europe" July 19. |
| 06/2011 | "Do German Employers Support Board-level Codetermination?" Paper presentation at the annual conference of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE), Madrid, June 23-25. |
| 06/2011 | "The Politics of Cointainment: The Role of Employers in the Development of the German Welfare State" Paper presentation at the meeting of the Council of European Studies, Barcelona, June 20-22. |
| 05/2011 | "Economic Interests or Political Constraints: Why Did German Employers Accept Social Reforms?" Paper presentation at the Annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of German Politics (IASGP), London, May 16-17. |
| 11/2010 | "Protagonists or Opponents of Social Protection? Employers and Institutional Change in the German Political Economy"
Presentation at the Workshop "Institutional Change" organized by the Equalsoc/Traleg group at the University of Mannheim/Mannheim Centre for European Social Research, November 25-27. |
| 09/2010 | "Reformmotoren oder Bremser? – Arbeitgeberinteressen und Reformen der sozialen Sicherung" [Employer Interests and Welfare State Reform] Paper presentation at the conference of the Comparative Politics section of the German Political Science Association (Deutsche Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft, DVPW), September 20-22, University of Duisburg. |
| 09/2010 | "Ziele und Strategien der Arbeitgeber in der Entwicklung des deutschen Sozialstaats" [Goals and Strategies of Employers in the Development of the German Welfare State] Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the Political Economy section within the German Political Science Association (DVPW-Sektion Politische Ökonomie), September 10-11, ETH Zurich. |
| 06/2010 | "Die Sozialpolitik der Arbeitgeberverbände" Paper presented at the conference 'Associations and Social Policy', organised by the the German Political Science Association (DVPW), Working Group on Associations, University of Kassel. |
| 06/2010 | "Does Business Want Social Policy?" Presentation at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, Research Seminar, June 2, 2010. |
| 05/2010 | "The Politics of Containment" Invited Talk, Anglo-German 'State of the State' Programme, University of Bremen. |
| 04/2010 | "Business and Coordinated Capitalism: Defenders or Challengers of the German Model?" Paper presented at the 17th Conference of the Council of European Studies (CES), Montreal. |
| 01/2010 | "German Business and the Welfare State" Invited Talk, University of Salzburg, Department of Political Science, Austria. |
| 07/2009 | "Employers and Social Compromise: Defenders or Challengers of the German Model?" Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, Paris. |
| 03/2009 | "German Employers and Collective Bargaining: Protagonists or Challengers?" Presentation at the workshop The Evolution of the Welfare State at the European University Institute (EUI), Florence. |
| 05/2008 | "European Integration and Unemployment: What is the contribution of the EU to employment policy?" Guest Lecture delivered at the University of Florence in the framework of the course Sociology of Europe. |
| 09/2007 | "The Role of Business Interests in Welfare State Reform - an exploratory case study of the social policy strategies of the Austrian employer organisation" Paper presented at the 4th ECPR General Conference, Pisa. |
| 04/2007 | "Capitalists and the Welfare State – The role of business interests in welfare state reform"
Paper presented at the EUI workshop The Evolution of Contemporary Welfare States Florence. |
| 09/2006 | "Does the Politics of Business Matter in Welfare State Reform?" Paper presented at the 1st ECPR Graduate Conference, University of Essex, Colchester, UK. |
| 05/2004 | "Europeanization through Soft Governance? Theoretical perspectives on the problem-solving capacity of the Open Method of Coordination."
Paper presented at the Powi04 Graduate Conference of the Austrian Political Science Association (ÖGPW), Vienna |
Teaching | |
| 10/2012-01/2013 | "Welfare States and Labor Markets in Comparative Perspective: Challenges, Policies, and Politics" MA-level course in English at the University of Cologne. |
| 04-07/2012 | "Globalization, Europeanization and the Transformation of National Capitalisms," MA-level course in English taught at the University of Cologne. |
| 04-07/2011 | "Das Politische System der BRD in Vergleichender Perspektive" [The Political System of Germany in Comparative Perspective] Under-graduate course in German taught at the University of Cologne. |
| 09/2008 | EUI Teaching Skills Certificate, awared by the European University Institute (Florence), based on participation in a one-week workshop on university teaching and submission of a course outline. |
| 05/2008 | European Integration and Unemployment Seminar session given within the framework of the course ’Sociology of Europe’ at the University of Florence, course organized by Prof. Laura Leonardi. |
| 2006-2007 | Introduction to Electronic Reference Management Software, Course taught at the European University Institute, Florence, in cooperation with Michiel Tegelaars. |
| 05-07/2004 | Guest lecturerer at a community college in Vienna (Volkshochschule Alsergrund), lectures on issues of European Integration. |
Methods Training | |
| 07/2006 | Oslo Summer School in Comparative Social Science Studies
University of Oslo Course: Methodological Problems in Comparative Political Economy |
| 07/2005 | Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection
University of Essex, Colchester. Course: Theory of Regression |
| 07/2004 | Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection
University of Essex, Colchester. Courses: Introduction to Time Series Analysis and Introduction to Mathematics for Social Scientists |
Languages | |
| German | Native (C2) |
| English | Fluent (C1, TOEFL CBT: 280 of 300 points) |
| Italian | Basic (A2) |
| Swedish | Basic (A2) |
| French | Basic (A1) |