Curriculum Vitae
Prof. Dr. Volker Bornschier
Curriculumvitae in English
Volker Bornschier was born in Witten-Ruhr, Germany, in 1944. Following a period as assistant and his habilitation (a post-doctoral qualification required for professorship in German-speaking countries) at the Department of Sociology within the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Zurich, he has taught and undertaken research there as a professor since 1981.
He is a founder member of the World Society Foundation and was its president from 1983 - 1996. He is currently serving as vice-president of this organisation, which was established by Peter Heintz to promote worldwide research into many different aspects of world society.
He was director of the Sociological Institute of the University of Zurich from 1997 to 2000 and is actively engaged in various international bodies, organising, aspects of the last four World Congresses of Sociology. He also serves as a reviewer for social science journals and for research funding agencies.
His academic activities at the University, using a team-based approach, are research-oriented and include projects supported by the SNF (Swiss National Science Foundation) and others. Developing young scientific talent has been of particular interest to him.
He has produced and published 21 books (including monographs), some of them with co-authors. In addition, he has published 125 articles in leading social science journals, encyclopaedias, and volumes. In 2001 he was awarded a Fritz Thyssen Foundation Prize for one of the best social science essays in the German language published in 2000.
Many of his publications have been published in German and/or English and have been translated and published in Chinese, Spanish, French and Italian.
In June 2004 he was honoured by his staff and many international colleagues with an international Symposium, The Future of World Society, held at the University of Zurich, on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
List of publications
Publications online
Dissertations by his students
Lizentiatsarbeiten (MA-publications) by his students
Messages may be sent to Volker Bornschier