[4] In keeping with the entirety of Hannah Arendt's work, research activities[5] of the institute named after her – the HAIT – focus on the comparative analysis of dictatorships while also reflecting on the historical and political conditions of liberal-democratic polities.

In accordance with the institute's statutes, the systematic study of political, social and cultural developments during the Nazi and SED dictatorships lies at the heart of its work.

In addition, international as well as intertemporal comparative perspectives on other fascist and state-socialist regimes belong to the research programme, as does analysis of the political, economic and social transformations in the post-Communist countries after 1989.

The institute also devotes research to current challenges and dangers faced by democracy, in particular from autocratic and fundamentalist regimes as well as extremist, racist and anti-Semitic attitudes and movements.

The director is appointed by the board of trustees in consultation with the Academic advisory council for a term of five years after having been proposed by a joint search committee of Dresden University of Technology and HAIT.