Simon Unger studied history and philosophy at University College Maastricht, UCLA, and Oxford University, from where he was awarded his doctorate in 2018. As a graduate student he held scholarships by the British Economic and Social Research Council and the German National Academic Foundation. In 2016, he was appointed to a lectureship at Magdalen College/Oxford, where he taught modern European history. After completing his PhD, he was a visiting postdoctoral fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washington DC (2018–2019) and subsequently became a researcher at the DHI in Rome. Since 2022, Simon Unger is a Junior Fellow of Aspen Institute Italia and a Visiting Professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 2023 he obtained the Venia Legendi (German Habilitation) at Fribough University. He currently leads the third International Research Group of the Max-Weber-Foundation (The Global Pontificate of Pius XII: Catholicism in a Divided World, 1945–1958).

Simon Unger's research is concerned with the history of political thought and religion in the twentieth century. He currently works on a book project under the title Shadows of the Occident. Catholicism in the Political Thought of Post-War Europe, 1945–1960.

Main research interests
Fascism and Nazism in Europe; Media History; Begriffsgeschichte; Political Theory; Religion in the 20th Century, History of the Vatican.