Niko Switek

Niko Switek is DAAD Visiting Assistant Professor for German Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School for International Studies and the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington. His research interests focus on political parties and party systems as well as on coalition politics. He wrote extensively about the German green party ‘Bündnis 90/Die Grünen’ and the green party family in Western Europe. In addition he worked on parties on European level (‘Europarties’) and just recently compiled a volume on fictional TV series about politics.

Conference Papers

“Political Television Series on the Rise – How Fictional Shows Transform Politics Into Entertaining Stories” Panel “Political Transformations and Memory in TV and Film” MPSA Annual Conference 2019 Chicago

“One Small Step for Candidates, One Giant Leap for Europarties? The consequence of the Spitzenkandidaten instrument in the European Elections 2014 on their subsequent institutionalization” Panel “Comparative Political Parties” MPSA Annual Conference 2019 Chicago

“Fueling Populism or Subtle Political Education? The German Political TV Satires ‘Eichwald MdB’ and ‘Ellerbeck’” Seminar “German Politics in Popular Culture: Logics and Consequences of Transforming Political Institutions, Processes, and Actors into Entertainment” GSA Annual Conference 2019 Portland