Matthias Quent

Matthias Quent is a sociologist and founding director of the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society in Jena, Germany. His work focuses on the analysis of the far right, radicalization and hate crimes. He holds degrees in Sociology, Political Science and Modern History from Friedrich Schiller University in Jena and the University of Leicester, England. He received his PhD with a thesis on the interrelationships and dynamics of individual, group and social influences in the radicalization of right-wing terrorism. He is the author of several books published by the German publishing house Piper, including Deutschland rechts außen (The German Far Right, 2019) and 33 Fragen und Antworten zum Rechtsextremismus (33 questions and answers about right-wing extremism, 2020). In 2012, he received the Young Talent Award from the University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf for his research on neo-Nazi extremism. In 2016, he was awarded with the prize for the moral courage of the city of Jena.