Prof. Dr. Nadja Meisterhans
Professor of Political Philosophy — Global Governance, Civil Society and Social Movements
Nadja is interested in a problem most political theory prefers to avoid: why people so often desire the very structures that dominate them. Her work brings psychoanalysis into political science — not as metaphor, but as a method for reading how authoritarian politics recruits longing, fear and fantasy. Human rights, global health governance, right-wing populism, the pandemic: in each case she asks what the official story leaves out, and who pays for the omission.
Human rights as promise and as power
Nadja’s first book examined international human rights law as something more complicated than a straightforward emancipatory achievement — as a practice that both constrains domination and exercises it. That double reading has stayed with her. In her courses on globalisation, governance and law, students learn that legal norms are neither neutral instruments nor empty rhetoric, but arenas where struggles get settled in someone’s favour. The task is to work out whose.
Why psychoanalysis belongs in political science
Since 2019 Nadja has led the working group Psychoanalyse und Kritik: Transdisziplinäre Perspektiven at the German Society for Psychoanalytic Social Psychology, alongside Dr. Daniel Zettler, and served on the society’s board until 2023. Her published work in this area asks what ideology critique looks like after the supposed end of ideology: how authoritarian populism organises desire, why conspiracy belief flourishes under neoliberal conditions, and whether utopian imagination can be recovered from the dystopian present. It is theory with a sharp edge, and her students are expected to use it.
The pandemic as a political question
Her current research project, Dialectics of the Pandemic: Between Authoritarianism and Utopia?, was originally funded by the Austrian Science Fund and transferred to the German Research Foundation under the “Money follows Researcher” programme. It examines the pandemic as a politically produced crisis with intersectional consequences, running in cooperation with the University of Vienna and the Kunstuniversität Linz. Her related publications on global health governance and philanthrocapitalism ask a question that outlasts COVID-19: who governs health, and by what authority.
Research that answers to more than the discipline
Before returning to full-time academia, Nadja worked as a research officer to the managing director of the human rights organisation medico international, and she has contributed to shadow reporting to the WHO through the People’s Health Movement. She advises on policy at the Institut für Solidarische Moderne, reviews for several international journals, and speaks regularly outside the university — keynotes on social movements and climate policy, on the criminalisation of climate protest, and podcast appearances on neoliberal democracy and conspiracy myths. The civil-society commitment is not a sideline to the research. It is where much of it comes from.
At Karls since 2015
Nadja has taught at Karlshochschule since 2015 and has held her professorship since September 2021. She directs the Citizenship and Civic Engagement (B.A.) and Globalization, Governance and Law (B.A.) programmes, and teaches across International Relations, PPE and the Social Transformation master’s. Students who want political theory delivered as a survey of great thinkers should look elsewhere. Students who want to understand how power actually holds together should sign up.
Domination does not only coerce us. It also makes itself desirable. That is the harder thing to explain.
Join the working group
Students and researchers are warmly invited to take part in the meetings of the working group Psychoanalyse und Kritik (hybrid format), run within the German Society for Psychoanalytic Social Psychology. If you’re interested, write to Nadja directly: nmeisterhans@karlshochschule.de
Facts, figures and the full CV
Roles and responsibilities
- Programme Director, Citizenship and Civic Engagement (B.A.)
- Programme Director, Globalization, Governance and Law (B.A.)
- Professor at Karlshochschule since September 2021; teaching at the university since 2015
Teaching
- International Relations (B.A.)
- Politics, Philosophy and Economics (B.A.)
- Citizenship and Civic Engagement (B.A.)
- Globalization, Governance and Law (B.A.)
- Social Transformation (M.A.)
Research interests
- Political theory and political philosophy — critical theory, psychoanalytic and postcolonial feminist critiques of power and domination
- Critical global governance — post-development and global health
- Global law, with a focus on human rights
- Psychoanalytic social psychology
Current research project
Dialectics of the Pandemic: Between Authoritarianism and Utopia? — originally awarded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), transferred to the German Research Foundation (DFG) under the “Money follows Researcher” programme. DFG – GEPRIS – Dialektik der Pandemie: Zwischen Autoritarismus und Utopie?
Academic and professional career
- Since 09/2021 — Professor of Political Philosophy (Global Governance, Civil Society and Social Movements), Karlshochschule International University
- SS 2021 — Visiting Professor, Institute of International Development, University of Vienna
- WS 2020 — Lecturer, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna; Lecturer in Political Economy, FH des BFI Wien
- 2019–2023 — Board member, German Society for Psychoanalytic Social Psychology (GfpS)
- 2015–2021 — Lecturer, Karlshochschule International University
- 2017–2020 — Postdoc / Senior Lecturer, Institute of Social Policy, Johannes Kepler University Linz
- 2015–2017 — Lecturer, Institute of Social Policy, Johannes Kepler University Linz
- 2016 — Postdoctoral Researcher, Political Theory, Justus Liebig University Giessen
- 2013–2016 — Research Officer to the Managing Director, medico international, Frankfurt am Main
- 2011–2012 — Deputy Junior Professor of Democracy Research, Justus Liebig University Giessen
- 2010–2011 — Research Associate, Institute of Sociology, University of Flensburg
- Earlier teaching posts at TU Darmstadt, Hochschule Darmstadt and Justus Liebig University Giessen
Research networks and cooperations
- University of Vienna — Political Science and International Development, within the DFG project Dialectics of the Pandemic
- Kunstuniversität Linz — Cultural Studies, within the DFG project
- International Psychoanalytic University (IPU) Berlin — cultural theory and psychoanalysis
- Working group on political psychology, Leibniz University Hannover
- Working group on political psychology, Sigmund Freud Institute, Frankfurt am Main
- Head of the working group Psychoanalyse und Kritik, GfpS (with Dr. Daniel Zettler), since 2019
Civil society engagement
- medico international — international human rights and aid organisation
- People’s Health Movement — shadow reporting to the WHO
- Policy advice at the Institut für Solidarische Moderne, and ongoing engagement in gender, democracy and human rights
Peer review
- BioMed Central (STM), Springer
- Middle East – Topics & Arguments
- Momentum Quarterly – Journal for Societal Progress
Selected publications
Monograph
- Meisterhans, N. (2010). Menschenrechte als weltgesellschaftliche Herrschaftspraxis. Zur Demokratisierung und Konstitutionalisierung des Völkerrechts. Baden-Baden: Nomos.
Edited volumes
- Leicht, I., Löw, C., Meisterhans, N. & Volk, K. (eds.) (2017). Materialität neu denken. Materialität anders denken – Feministische Interventionen. Politik und Geschlecht, vol. 28. Opladen: Budrich.
- Leicht, I., Löw, C., Meisterhans, N. & Volk, K. (eds.) (2016). Feministische Kritiken und Menschenrechte. Politik und Geschlecht, vol. 27. Opladen: Budrich.
- Co-editor of the series Politik und Geschlecht and Politik und Geschlecht kompakt, Barbara Budrich Verlag (2012–2014).
Journal articles (peer-reviewed)
- Meisterhans, N. (2022). Das große Versagen in der Pandemie: Macht- und herrschaftskritische Anmerkungen zu den intersektionalen Dimensionen einer politisch gemachten Katastrophe. Momentum Quarterly, 11(2), 77–142.
- Meisterhans, N. (2021). Authoritarian populism and the dialectics of desire: Perspectives of ideology-critique. Berlin Journal of Critical Theory, 5(1), 99–131.
- Meisterhans, N. (2019). Wider dem Tod der feministischen Utopie. Femina Politica, 28(1), 72–84.
- Meisterhans, N. (2017). Das Unbehagen im Neoliberalismus. Postideologisches Denken und Rechtspopulismus – eine heimliche Liaison? Psychologie & Gesellschaftskritik, 41(3/4), 109–129.
- Meisterhans, N. (2016). WHO in crisis: Lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak and beyond. The Chinese Journal of Global Governance, 2, 1–29.
- Meisterhans, N. (2015). Die neoliberale Mär vom wohltätigen Unternehmertum: Der Philanthrokapitalismus als Herrendiskurs. Psychologie und Gesellschaftskritik, 38(2–3), 41–63.
- Meisterhans, N. (2015). Health for all: Implementing the right to health in the post-2015 agenda. Social Medicine / Medicina Social, 109–125.
Selected articles and chapters
- Meisterhans, N. (2024). Politiken des Todes? Nekropolitischer Populismus in Zeiten multipler Krisen. Triëdere, 27, 93–97.
- Meisterhans, N. (2024). Subjektivierung, Sublimierung und Transformation. In B. Buchhammer (ed.), Gender, Queer, Feminismus. LIT Verlag, 45–61.
- Meisterhans, N. & Graul, S. (2023). Mit der Psychoanalyse und dem Surrealismus von der Paranoia zur Utopie? Freie Assoziation, 26(1), 45–61.
- Meisterhans, N. (2022). The global dialectics of a pandemic: Between necropolitics and utopian imagination. In Jakupec, Kelly & de Percy (eds.), COVID-19 and Foreign Aid. Routledge.
- Meisterhans, N. (2021). The dialectics of desire: Feminist-psychoanalytical perspectives on law. In Buchhammer & Kallhoff (eds.), Human Rights: Feminist and Genderphilosophical Perspectives, 32–65.
- Meisterhans, N. (2010). Menschenrechte ohne den Staat? Zur Notwendigkeit postnationaler Grundrechte. In Deitelhoff & Steffek (eds.), Was bleibt vom Staat?, 281–308.
The full publication list, including reviews, policy papers and research reports, is available on request.
Selected talks and public engagement
- Keynote, “Nie wieder ist jetzt!” — SPÖ commemoration marking 90 years since 12 February 1934, Linz (2024)
- Keynote and panel, social movements and climate policy, Südwind Österreich, Linz (2024)
- “Autoritäre Kippunkte? Zur Kriminalisierung der Klimaproteste” — Johannes Kepler University (2023)
- “From paranoia to utopia?” — 4th Lisbon International Conference on Philosophy of Science, University of Lisbon (2023)
- Podcast appearances including Jung & Naiv (2023) on neoliberal democracy and conspiracy myths, and an IPU Berlin podcast on psychoanalysis and critical theory
Want to study with Nadja?
Her courses run in Citizenship and Civic Engagement, Globalization, Governance and Law, International Relations, PPE and the Social Transformation master’s. Come to an info day, sit in on a session, or write to her directly.