Tom Bryder

CV

CV for Dr. Tom Bryder 

Tom Bryder (b. 1946)  works at the Political Science Department, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is at present writing a book with the preliminary title "The Structure and Uses of Arguments in Politics and Political Science". He is doing research in, and teaches political psychology, including xenophobic and prejudiced politics, comparative politics and comparative methods. He also works in the field of electoral behaviour, political propaganda, advertisement and marketing. Since a couple of years, he is also working in the fields of cultural diplomacy and political culture, rhetoric and political language.

Chronology of studies & employments

Bryder received his doctoral degree in political science from the University of Lund, Sweden, in 1975. He was then the youngest researcher to have been awarded the doctoral degree in political science at the University of Lund. He also has a major in economic history, and a minor in philosophy, where he specialised in theoretical philosophy and the history of scientific and political ideas.

He has worked as a deputy professor in public administration at Ålborg University Center 1975 - 1977, as a senior lecturer in policy research (labour market politics) at the Department of Political Science, Århus University, spring 1977, and as an external lecturer in political science at the Institute of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, spring 1977. From 1977 until 1985 he was senior lecturer in social science and public administration at the Technical University of Luleå, Sweden. During this period he was also appointed docent in political science at the Academy of  Åbo in Finland in 1982, after a qualification review by an international peer committee. He had then been a guest researcher at the Academy of Åbo for half a year.

In 1985 he was appointed methodological expert at the Danish National Institute of Social Research (Danmarks Socialforskningsinstitut), and he conducted approximately 50 surveys in the period 1985 -1987 about the health
of the Danes, their habits of life, youth culture and the transfer of employment from the public to the private sector.

During this period he was also employed as an external lecturer in political sociology and psychology at the Institute of Political Science, Copenhagen University, and in 1987 he was regularly employed as a senior lecturer in social science methodology and applied computer science.

From February 1, 2000 until January 2005, he worked as an ordinary (full) professor in political science and political psychology at the University of Växjö, Sweden, but gave up his position at Växjö for personal reasons to resume his position as docent (associate professor) at the University of Copenhagen, from which he had had a leave of absence. In Jamuary 2006 he was declared competent for a full professorship in political science and provided with a salary addition for this.

During his years in Denmark Bryder was also appointed to the position of docent (associate professor) in political science at the University of Copenhagen in 1991 after a competitive evaluation by a peer review committee.

International academic engagements

In 1988 he worked for a semester as a guest professor in Mass Media Research at the University of Amsterdam, Holland, and in 1989 he was once again guest researcher at the Academy of Åbo, Finland.

During his past and current employments he has guest lectured at numerous universities in Europe and America, including the Johns Hopkins School of International Relations in Bologna, Mass communication and mass psychology, the University of Amsterdam, the Sigmund Freud Institute at the University of Frankfurt a.M., The Wesleyan University (Connecticut), Yale University (Connecticut), Columbia University, (New York), Toronto University, Canada, and the Technical University of Berlin, The University of Ljubljana (Laibach) (Slovenia), and the Koper Business School (Slovenia). Most recently he was an external examiner of a PhD thesis at Cambridge University, England, he was a Dag Hammarsköld Guest Lecturer at Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany February 2007, and he hasdone a faculty review of a PhD thesis in political psychology at Nuffield College, Oxford University, England, in November 2007.

Extramural commitments

He is also a free lance commentator on Danish politics at the public service Swedish TV2 , at TV1 and the commercial TV4. He is in addition appointed commentator on the Danish DR2 TV-program DEADLINE, which is hosted by DR Nyheder. Occassionally he has also worked as a commentator for YLE 1 (Finland). Under the SOCRATES agreement with the University of Vienna, Austria, he worked there as a guest professor in December 1999, and at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2004.

Career and publishing fora 

Tom Bryder is an ex-president of The International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP). Since 1972 he has written articles and book reviews in Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift, Political Psychology, PS of the American Political Science Association, Økonomi og Politik, Internationella Studier, Dansk Sociologi, The International Journal of Social Science (UNESCO), Psicologia Politica (Valencia, Spain), Udsyn, Co-operation and Conflict, Sociologisk Forskning and Bokbox.

From 1991 to 2000 he was director the the International Studies Programmes (SOCRATES/ NORDPLUS/ TEMPUS and bi-lateral university agreements) at the political science department at Copenhagen University.

He is also an advisor and expert on youth and culture in the Research and Advisory organisation, Forward Studies Unit (Celulle de Prospective), which is directly responsible to the President of the European Communities, and he has occasionally worked as an expert evaluator of social science project applications in the Delegation XXII of the European Commission (through TAO).

Primary fields of research

Political psychology, sociology, anthropology, political behaviour, political philosophy and the history of political ideas, political rhetoric, propaganda, spin and political marketing, cultural diplomacy and soft power.

My field of methodological expertise is quantitative analysis of political attitude data and experimental methodology, and most forms of content analysis

Current research

I am at present engaged in two empirical research fields, "misanthropy, cynicism and political behaviour" and I am writing a book on political propaganda, spin and political marketing with an emphasis on vusual propaganda.

Knowledge of languages

• English,
• Danish,
• Swedish,
• Norwegian,
• German, and
• French.

I also read and understand Italian and Dutch, and although he has lived in Sweden since 1957, he is still a Danish citizen.

Fields of interest

Audio-visual media; Political art; Calssical music; Klezmer music; Traditional jazz; Film-editing; Political biographies

Teaching

General and comparative political science; Political psychology; Political propaganda and political rhetoric; Political culture and polityical socialization; Political leadership; Election research; Science theory and methodology