Thomas Schmidinger is an Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kurdistan Hewlêr (UKH). He has been with the department since 2022. He also teaches at the University of Vienna and the University of Applied Sciences Oberösterreich (Austria) and is co-editor of the Vienna Kurdish Studies Yearbook. Ph.D. in Political Science, University of Vienna, 2014. Ma in Political Science and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 2003. Research focus on Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Kosovo, religion & state, religious extremism.

E-mail: thomas.schmidinger@ukh.edu.krd ♦ ORCID iD:  0000-0002-6491-0471