Academic Beards

Nico van der Heiden studied political science, economics and media science at the University of Zurich (M.A. 2005). From 2002 until 2005 he was a student assistant at the Institute for Political Science at the University of Zurich (chair for Swiss politics and unit for policy-analysis and evaluation). Subsequently he was a research and teaching assistant at the same institute (2005-2008). In 2005, he was accepted to participate in the doctoral school of the NCCR democracy. His dissertation is on "Urban Foreign Policy and Domestic Dilemmas in Swiss and European City-regions" (Dr. des. 2009). A scholarship for promising junior scholars from the Swiss National Science Foundation allowed him to spend the academic year 2007/2008 at the INRS-UCS (Institut national de la recherché scientifique urbanisation, culture et société) in Montréal (Canada). Thereafter, he was academic assistant at the Seminar for Political Science at the University of Lucerne. Since February 2009, he is a senior project manager at the Centre for Democracy in Aarau.