Biography

Prof. Dr. Patrizia Nanz has been President of the European University Institute since March 2024. She combines a distinguished scientific record with proven leadership experience, having served as Director of the Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) in Potsdam, and Funding Director of the Franco-German Forum for the Future.

Her expertise spans a broad spectrum of themes, with a particular focus on such topical issues as the future of European democracy, public participation, innovative public administration, and the socio-economic transformations linked to climate change. Professor Nanz has served as Vice-President of Germany’s Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management and Head of the Collaborative Governance Lab. She has advised regional and national governments, as well as the European Commission, and built an extensive network in both the academic and political domains.

Patrizia Nanz studied philosophy at the Munich School of Philosophy and history and literary studies as well as philosophy at universities in Munich, Milan, Montréal and Frankfurt Rhine-Main. She also trained as a journalist and worked as editor for S. Fischer Verlag (Frankfurt) and Feltrinelli Editore (Milan). Nanz later obtained a doctorate in Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute.

After having been a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods (Bonn) and Marie-Curie Fellow at Westminster University (London), she has been Professor of Political Theory at the University of Bremen and the University of Potsdam. She has also been Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study (Berlin) and Visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Supervisees

• Azucena Moran

Fields of expertise

Recent publications

• Kübler, L., Nanz, P. (2024), Die große Transformation: Zum Verhältnis von (Sozial-)Wissenschaft, Politik und Gesellschaft. Leviathan, 2024, Vol. 52, No. 1, pp. 44-60, Full-text PDF in Open Access (Submitted version)
• Bornemann, B., Knappe, H., & Nanz, P. (Eds.) (Routledge 2022). The Routledge Handbook of Democracy and Sustainability
• Lawrence, M. G., Williams, S., Nanz, P., Renn, O. (2022). Characteristics, potentials, and challenges of transdisciplinary research. One Earth, 5(1), 44-61
• Nanz P., Borggräfe J., Hassel A., Göpel M. et al. (2021) Eine moderne Verwaltung ist Voraussetzung für Deutschlands Zukunftsfähigkeit und Demokratie - Acht Handlungsfelder für die nächste Bundesregierung. Zenodo, October 2021. English / French
• Kübler, L., Leggewie, C., Nanz, P. (2021), Demokratische Innovation durch Bürgerräte. Zeitschrift der Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung 71, 26–27.
• Nanz, P., Taylor C., Beaubien Taylor M. (2020), Reconstructing Democracy. Citizens are Building from the Ground Up. Harvard University Press. German / Italian / Spanish
• Nanz, P., Leggewie, C. (2018): Die Konsultative: Mehr Demokratie durch Bürgerbeteiligung. Wagenbach English