Siniša Malešević, MRIA, MAE (born 5 April 1969 in Banja Luka) is a Yugoslav born Irish Full Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University College, Dublin, Ireland. He is also a Senior Fellow and Associate Researcher at Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (CNAM), Paris, France.

Professor Malešević completed his high school education at the New Bern High School, North Carolina, USA in 1988. He graduated in sociology from the University of Zagreb, Croatia in 1993. He received his MA from the Lancaster University, UK and the Central European University, Prague, Czech Republic in 1995. He subsequently completed his PhD in sociology from the University College Cork, Ireland in 1999 [1].

Professor Malešević's research interests include the comparative-historical and theoretical study of ethnicity, nation-states, nationalism, empires, ideology, war, violence and sociological theory.

Previously he held research and teaching appointments at the Institute for International Relations (Zagreb), the Centre for the Study of Nationalism, CEU (Prague)- where he worked with late Ernest Gellner -, and at the University of Galway. He also held visiting professorships and fellowships at the Université libre de Bruxelles (Eric Remacle Chair in Conflict and Peace Studies), the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna, the London School of Economics, Uppsala University, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Amsterdam, the Australian Defence College, Canberra and the Centre for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen[1].

In March 2010 he was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, in December 2012 he was elected associated member of Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in August 2014 he was elected a Member of Academia Europaea [2].

Prof. Malešević is author of eleven and editor of nine books and volumes including monographs Ideology, Legitimacy and the New State (2002), The Sociology of Ethnicity (2004), Identity as Ideology (2006) The Sociology of War and Violence (2010), Nation-States and Nationalisms (2013), The Rise of Organised Brutality (2017), Grounded Nationalisms (2019), Why Humans Fight (2022) and Nationalism as a Way of Life (2025). The Rise of Organised Brutality is a recipient of the 2018 outstanding book award from the American Sociological Association's Peace, War and Social Conflict Section [3], 'Grounded Nationalisms' was a runner up (honorable mention) in 2020 Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research while 'Why Humans Fight' was winner of the 2023 outstanding book award from the American Sociological Association (PWSC section) and has also been shortlisted as a finalist for the 2023 Conflict Research Society book prize. In 2023 Prof. Malešević received Robin M. Williams, Jr. Award for Distinguished Contributions to Scholarship, Teaching, and Service, from the American Sociological Association [4] [5].

He has also authored over 140 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and has given more than 200 invited talks all over the world [2].

His work has been translated into numerous languages including Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Chinese, Croatian, French, Japanese, Persian, Portuguese, Serbian, Spanish, Turkish, and Russian.