PROFILE: Moritz Graefrath

FOSTER Training the Next Generation of Scholars

Moritz Graefrath is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at Notre Dame, specializing in international relations. In 2022-23, he will be a predoctoral research fellow in the International Security Program at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. When Moritz Graefrath arrived at the University of

Notre Dame to begin his Ph.D. program in political science in August 2017, he knew that the key to his personal and professional growth would be finding a home away from home. By the end of his first year, Moritz, a native of Essen, Germany, was a regular attendee at

Nanovic events and, as he progressed through his graduate studies, he found that the institute provided more opportunities for professionalization, interdisciplinary engagement, and a shared sense of purpose.

A graduate of the University of Bayreuth in Germany, Moritz was attracted to the Department of Political Science’s strengths in the field of international relations. He especially wanted to work with Nanovic Faculty Fellow Sebastian Rosato, who is interested in the kinds of questions that Moritz wanted to pursue: big questions about how the world works, why states cooperate, compete, or go to war, and how scholars might identify the historical roots of these dynamics. Importantly, Moritz wanted to consider these questions within the context of the long and broad sweep of European history, from the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 to the power dynamics between European states from the Great War to the Cold War.

In the first semesters of his graduate studies, Moritz was drawn to the Nanovic Institute’s lectures, events, and other programs. Part of the attraction to a European studies institute was personal, but he was also conscious that he was one of few Europeanist students in his political science cohort. In Nanovic, he found a meeting point for people who were either from Europe or had a close connection to the continent in their lives and in their work. By the middle of his second year in 2019, the Institute inaugurated a fellowship cohort within which Moritz could forge and strengthen such connections: the Graduate Fellows Program.

The Institute has played an important role in proving to him the value and necessity of working across disciplines. As an undergraduate, he realized that while his research interests lay within political science and international relations, the scholarship, methods, and perspectives of other disciplines – particularly history and philosophy – would enhance his studies immeasurably. Of interdisciplinarity, Moritz says that if he had not “seen it done, seen it work, and seen it excel at Nanovic,” he may not have explored its possibilities in his own research to the same degree. This includes a burgeoning research program with philosopher Marcel Jahn, a friend from Moritz’s time at Bayreuth, with whom he co-wrote his first peer-reviewed article “Conceptualizing interstate cooperation” in International Theory, published in October 2021.

Nanovic has also helped Moritz develop his professional skills, providing opportunities to organize conferences, present his research, develop online content, and teach his own classes. Along with Alec Hahus, his colleague in political science and the Nanovic Graduate Fellows program, Moritz initiated the Europe in the World project, facilitated by the Institute and launched in August 2021. The pair developed EITW (eitw. nd.edu) as a platform for scholars, at Notre Dame and beyond, to connect their research to issues of contemporary concern in ways that would be accessible to the general public. Moritz also acquired teaching experience first as part of a graduate fellows team teaching an introductory class on European studies and then teaching his own seminar on the international relations of interwar Europe. He is still in contact with many of the students who took his class and mentors several who are now pursuing graduate degrees in Europe.

One of the abiding memories that Moritz takes with him from his time at the Nanovic Institute relates to these students and was the result of serendipitous scheduling. In September 2021, he spoke to the institute’s advisory board at their annual meeting, an assignment that provided him with a welcome opportunity to reflect upon the part Nanovic had played in his career at Notre Dame. At the meeting, Moritz saw that he was presenting alongside some of his former students, undergraduates he had taught in recent semesters. He noted, with great satisfaction, “there is the next generation of scholars or practitioners or policymakers, who care about Europe with their head and with their heart.” For Moritz, hearing the students reflect on Nanovic’s role in their studies was deeply affirming. For Nanovic, it was a testament to the value of his contributions to the life of the Institute. ◆