Andrei S. Markovits, a native of Timisoara, Romania, is the Karl W. Deutsch Collegiate Professor Emeritus of Comparative Politics and German Studies and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Raised in Vienna and New York City, Markovits attended Columbia University from which he received five degrees. His fifty-year professorial career led him to holding positions on the faculties of Wesleyan University, Boston University, and the University of California at Santa Cruz before assuming his professorships at the University of Michigan in 1999 from which he retired in the summer of 2024. Markovits was also a long-time member of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University where he was a Visiting Professor of Social Studies in 2002-2003. Markovits held guest professorships at universities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Israel. He has been awarded many fellowships and was a member of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences of Stanford University and the Institute for Advanced Study Berlin (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin). His many books, articles, and reviews have appeared in nineteen languages. Markovits' published scholarship ranges from European social democracy and labor unions to European anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism. As a leading thinker about sports culture and its influence on politics and national identities, Markovits has co-authored Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism, Gaming the World: How Sports are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture, and Sportista: Female Fandom in the U.S.
For his scholarship and work to improve transatlantic understanding, Markovits was awarded the Federal Republic of Germany’s Cross of the Order of Merit, First Class. And while in Germany over the summer of 2024 to watch the Euros as a "Fussballprofessor" at the Technical University of Dortmund where he also held this professorship during the World Cup of 2006, he ran into Arsène Wenger, to whom he confessed he was a big Manchester United (and Sir Alex) fan. Markovits claims Wenger said he understood, and still agreed to take a picture together.
Favorite sports memory?
At Camp Nou in Barcelona in 1999, as my beloved Man United beat Bayern Munich to win the Champions League with two goals in the last five minutes of the match after being one goal down and all but dead!
Your global sports Mount Rushmore:
Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods
Which world leader would you put in goal?
Barack Obama
Which athlete would you want to be world leader?
David Beckham
Best rivalry:
Manchester United - Liverpool
A sign that the world of sport is shrinking:
The fact that students from Michigan's Upper Peninsula who have never been to Canada, let alone Europe, are Sporting Lisbon fans!
Where would the Great Game Lab find the quintessence of global sport?
New York City and Los Angeles because both have MAJOR LEAGUE sports in Association Football (soccer), American Football, Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey and individual sports like tennis and track and field! And both are media centers like none other in the world.
Question you'd most want to ask other fellows?
What makes sports totally unique in your life? Why do you love them more than anything, perhaps even family and friends?