Shakuntala Banerjee joins Brandt School as Senior Brandt Fellow

Shakuntala Banerjee is a journalist who has been working with the German public broadcaster ZDF as reporter, speaker of editors-in-chief, and foreign correspondent for many years. She is currently the deputy head of the capital studio in Berlin and co-host of the political magazine “Berlin direkt”. The ZDF is a public-service television broadcaster and ‘Berlin direkt’ the most successful political magazine on German television. Although new to the Brandt School in this role, her link to the University of Erfurt goes way back to the School’s early days when she worked with its founder Professor Dietmar Herz.

The Senior Brandt Fellows are the latest addition to the Brandt School Network. Earlier this month, the first two Senior Brandt Fellows, Carmen Niethammer and Achim von Heynitz had been announced. The Senior Brandt Fellows are distinguished practitioners who enrich the School with their experience from leadership positions in public policy and their extensive professional networks. They contribute to the School’s program in various ways, such as guest lectures, adjunct teaching or mentoring students. This new senior executive-level fellow program, which institutionalizes existing bonds and introduces new ones, will add greatly to the School’s mission to bridge academia and practice in its students’ education.