Ilker Gündoğan is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. He's also a fellow at the EU*Asia Institute of the ESSCA School of Management, France, and an affiliate researcher at the Centre for EU-Asia Connectivity at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.

• Chinese politics
• Political economy
• Critical technologies
• EU-China relations
• Sport Diplomacy

Gündoğan, Ilker. The Politics of Football in China: Institutional Change and Political Steering Under Xi Jinping. Palgrave Macmillan, 2025.

Gündoğan, Ilker. Die Politik des Fußballs in China: Institutioneller Wandel und Politische Steuerung Unter Xi Jinping. Springer Nature, 2025.

Gündoğan, Ilker. "China's Responses After the Russian War of Aggression Against Ukraine vis-à-vis the European Union and Its Own Population." Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 53.2 (2024): 325-350.

Gündoğan, Ilker. "Political Steering Theory in the Era of ‘Top-Level Design’: The Unexpected Implications of Campus Football in Xi Jinping’s China." Asian Journal of Sport History & Culture 3.1 (2024): 41-62.

Gündoğan, Ilker. "Institutional Change in the Governance of Chinese Football: The Era of ‘Top-Level Design’ Under the Leadership of Xi Jinping." The International Journal of the History of Sport 41.4 (2024): 333-354.

Stepan, Matthias, Ilker Gündoğan, Rosa Schmidt-Drewniok und Jörn-Carsten Gottwald. "The Role of German Universities in Academic Engagement with China." ASIEN: The German Journal on Contemporary Asia 1.170/171 (2024): 87-110.

Gündogan, Ilker. "Where good intentions fail: The limits of sport diplomacy with the People’s Republic of China under the leadership of Xi Jinping." Sports Law, Policy & Diplomacy Journal 1.1 (2023): 105-130.

Gündoğan, Ilker, and Albrecht Sonntag. "Chinese football in the era of Xi Jinping: What do supporters think?." Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 47.1 (2018): 103-141.

Gündoğan, Ilker. "Botschafter wider Willen? Fußballer im Kontakt mit Politikern." In Dietrich Schulze-Marmeling (ed), Der Fall Özil: über ein Foto, Rassismus und das deutsche WM-Aus, Verlag Die Werkstatt, 2018.

Winter semester 2025/26
China's political system
Studying the International Political Economy of East Asia: Theories and Methods

Summer semester 2026
Governing of Critical Technologies in East Asia
Political Steering in Critical Technology Fields in China and their Implications for the European Union 

I am happy to supervise theses on the topic of political steering in various policy fields in China, preferably in the areas of technology and innovation, as well as foreign policy and sports policy.

PhD scholarship holder of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation between 2018 and 2022.

Since 2025, I have been a regular tutor at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation's introductory event on PhD funding.