Year in Review 2019-2020
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Director’s Message While the world has changed and our university along with it, some things have remained constant: CES’s commitment to providing an intellectual space for groundbreaking, interdisciplinary scholarship on Europe; the strength and flexibility of our community who ensure the continued success of our mission; and our dedication to the development and nurturing of the next generation of scholars and experts on European politics, economy and history. We are living through a time of great uncertainty, for Europe and the world. The pernicious forces of populism threaten democracy across the globe, a pandemic and economic hardships have left many people struggling, adrift between safety and solvency. Racial inequity and institutional oppression have pushed us, through tragedy, to reconsider, not only how we are governed but what are the practices that make up our everyday lives. A crisis, such as this, exploits our weaknesses but also reveals our resiliency and potential for growth. CES is no exception. We started this academic year with ambitious goals to broaden programming and push our outreach into more diverse fields at Harvard and beyond, to strengthen our commitment to undergraduate education and our cross-discipline efforts. I am proud to say that despite all adversities brought by the pandemic, we have succeeded. We have expanded our undergraduate secondary field and other programs. The Center also embarked on new seminar series to address issues of race in Europe and ongoing concerns about the health of democracy. Even after the doors of Adolphus
Busch were closed, our events continued to be highly attended, with speakers and audience members from all over the world. The launch of virtual programs has reshaped our understanding of engagement and ensured that our events are accessible to the broadest range of people. On a more personal note, I would like to acknowledge with sadness the passing of our founding father Dr. Guido Goldman in December 2020. Thanks to Guido’s vision, generosity and devotion to CES, we are today a premier academic institution and the cross-Atlantic intellectual community of shared values and commitments. We will miss his friendship, wisdom and advice. Despite travel bans and visa restrictions, the intellectual links between Harvard and Europe are stronger than ever. CES is still at the nexus of European studies, presiding over seminal scholarship and timely discussions from influential scholars, policy experts and politicians. As we connected in new and innovative ways, our community has proven its steadfast support for Center’s mission. I look forward, with optimism, to the future, when the unique space of Adolphus Busch Hall is once again open to all inquisitive minds and the important, sometimes harsh, lessons learned from 2019 – 2020 fortify our mission and challenge us to new heights. Grzegorz Ekiert Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Government and Director, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) at Harvard is one of the nation’s leading academic institutions focusing on European history, politics and societies. Its mission is to foster research, teaching and discussion on Europe’s past, present and future. This publication highlights some of the people Guido Goldman speaking at Adolphus Busch Hall at the CES’ 50th anniversary celebration in December 2019.
and activities that helped make CES a vibrant intellectual community in the academic year 2019-2020.
CES celebrates 50 years of Europe at Harvard In 1969, a young graduate student named Guido Goldman joined his admired professor, Stanley Hoffmann, in a modest venture simply called the “West European Studies” program. Fast forward 50 years, the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) advanced the study of Europe in all corners of the globe and has built a community of thousands of faculty, scholars, and students who have made great achievements as educators, researchers, journalists, entrepreneurs, and leaders in every sector imaginable. To commemorate the collective accomplishments of the CES community, the Center engaged long-time CES Affiliate Art Goldhammer, who is wellknown for his translations of Thomas Piketty’s international bestsellers, to research and write the first History of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard (see page 6). Goldhammer’s eloquent prose tells the story of the early CES years, the vision of its founding directors, and the transformation of their idea into a preeminent institution for scholarship and engagement with Europe at Harvard and beyond. Center faculty spearheaded the CES 50th Anniversary Event Series to showcase the interdisciplinarity of European studies. The series opened
with a discussion on European ideologies to mark the retirement of CES Resident Faculty Patrice Higonnet and Charles S. Maier and ended with the inaugural Stanley Hoffmann Lecture of on the Study of France and the World on March 6, 2020 – the date that marked the last day when Harvard held in-person events before transitioning to virtual instructions. (see page 22.) In true CES tradition, the Center also included the arts in its celebrations. CES Director Grzegorz Ekiert co-curated the Center’s eighth art exhibit, “Remember Yugoslavia?,” which featured the photography of Harvard Chemistry Professor and Nobel Laureate Martin Karplus (see page 10). At the annual Holiday Party, CES celebrated in style with a concert by Harvard’s Parker Quartet at Adolphus Busch Hall featuring the music of Antonín Dvořák and Joseph Hayden. While 2019-2020 was marked by a celebration of CES past and present, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring marked a new chapter in the Center’s transformation for the future.
Originally, I thought of the Center as a showcase for the genius of Stanley Hoffmann ... But today, looking back, I think the thing I am proudest of is that of the 10 top political science departments in the United States today, eight include faculty who trained as graduate students at the Center.
The Parker Quartet
Suzanne Berger Julian Bourg
Kathrin Zippel Elias Naumann
Grzegorz Ekiert
– Guido Goldman
We have become a university-wide Center and embrace both faculty and students from Harvard’s professional schools. Today, we are more focused on providing diverse learning opportunities for undergraduate students than ever before. ...
Charles S. Maier
All of this reflects our determination to carry on Stanley’s mission of historically grounded, contextually sensitive, and morally uncompromising study of Europe. Aileen Mindel Bronfman de Gunzburg
– Grzegorz Ekiert
Anna Popiel
Click images above to read the History of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, authored by Art Goldhammer.
Thomas Piketty Inaugurates Annual Lecture Honoring Stanley Hoffmann
Thomas Jevon, Louise Richardson & Inge Hoffmann Thomas Piketty
On March 6, 2020, CES inaugurated the Stanley Hoffmann Annual Lecture on France and the World. This lecture series was established to honor the intellectual legacy of Stanley Hoffmann, Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser University Professor at Harvard University and founding chairman of CES, a prolific academic and brilliant lecturer, who left a deep mark on contemporary understandings of Europe and international relations. For more than 50 years, Hoffmann was an eminent academic and lecturer on Europe at Harvard and a leading public intellectual on both sides of the Atlantic. As a scholar of international relations and American foreign policy, as well as French and European politics, he left a deep mark on contemporary understandings of some of the most perplexing issues of our time. At Harvard, he was a brilliant lecturer and beloved teacher of a dazzling array of courses, including legendary ones on “War” and “Political Doctrines and Society: Modern France.”
The inaugural lecture was presented by Thomas Piketty, professor at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) and the Paris School of Economics, who discussed his new book Capital and Ideology. This book and his previous international bestseller Capital in the Twenty-First Century were translated from French by Art Goldhammer, a long-time CES affiliate. Piketty paid tribute to Goldhammer’s sensitive translation in bringing his work and ideas to life in the English language.
At a Private Discussion at CES
Piketty’s lecture became one of the last in-person events held at Harvard before the University transitioned to virtual instruction on March 16, 2020 due to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Peter A. Hall & Thomas Piketty
Albana Shehaj & Caterina Chiopris
Capital and Ideology: An Address by Thomas Piketty Päivi Johanna Neuvonen
Thomas Piketty’s international bestsellers were translated into English by CES Affiliate Art Goldhammer. To learn about his craft of translation, read the Harvard Gazette’s interview on page 34.
Rachel Damle, Roshni Chakraborty, Pablo Rasmussen Grzegorz Ekiert
Exhibit by Martin Karplus Remembers Yugoslavia
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS Roshni Chakraborty
Martin Karplus
On September 25, 2019 CES opened its eighth art exhibit entitled “Remember Yugoslavia?” at the Jacek E. Giedrojć Gallery. The exhibition featured photographs by Martin Karplus, Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at Harvard and 2013 Nobel Laureate. Taken during this travels to Europe in 1955, these photographs are the testimony of his personal journey into cultures, customs and landscapes that have changed drastically since. Karplus took these photos during a point in Yugoslavia’s history when “the Balkans turned into a laboratory for the competition between
Each year CES provides undergraduate students at Harvard with opportunities to experience Europe and develop an enduring interest in European studies. While travel restrictions and shifting constraints instituted to combat Covid-19, CES found new, innovative ways to spark and foster interest and continued scholarship in European studies. There have been set backs and adaptions required, but the CES community has proven its resiliency through the following initiatives:
the Free World and Soviet communism to lead traditional agrarian societies toward modernity,” as Mark Mazower observed in his book The Balkans: A Short History. Before guests viewed the exhibit, CES hosted a discussion on “Yugoslavia Revisited” with eminent experts on the region Marie-Janine Calic, Vesko Garčević, and Susan Woodward. (see video.)
Secondary Field in European History, Politics, and Societies
View photographs here.
Launched in 2016, the Center oversees the Secondary Field in European History, Politics, and Societies (EHPS), which offers undergraduates the opportunity to pursue interdisciplinary studies in contemporary European politics, history, and social and cultural developments. This year three students graduated with this minor and a total of 15 students have declared. Across eight disciplines from biophysics to classics, research of Europe continues to diversify and grow with CES at the helm. Senior Thesis Grants
To promote undergraduate interest and study in Europe, CES funds research for students at Harvard College who are writing senior theses focused on Europe. Since 1979, grants for juniors pursuing a senior thesis in European studies have been made possible through the generous endowment of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, which established the Krupp Foundation Fellowship in European Studies. This year, 14 rising seniors were virtually transported to Europe, for the summer, to conduct research on projects ranging from “System Populists and Policy Populists” to “Seeing Beyond the Binary: The Photographic Construction of Queer Identity in 20th Century Europe.”
Summer Internship Grants
CES internships provide experiential learning opportunities to Harvard College students in a variety of public, private, and research institutions. This year, 20 students had their virtual internships funded by CES, allowing them to explore opportunities ranging from duties at the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in the Netherlands to the German Council on Foreign Relations. Ajay Sarma received the Real Colegio Complutense Undergraduate Grant for Internships and Research in Spain, which provides funding for eight weeks of research in Spain. He was able to intern remotely at the Real Instituto Elcano.
Eleven students were awarded the Stanley H. Hoffman Undergraduate Research and Travel Grant: Regan Brady, Hannah Craig, Alice Donnellan, Katherine Lempres, Tomasz Maciak, Emily Markowitz, Elizabeth Oehmler, Francesco Rolando, Priscilla Samey, Nathaniel Steele, and Taylor Whitsell. Marie-Janine Calic
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Minda de Gunzburg CENTER FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES at HARVARD
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CES Launches Europe in Washington Workshop
Harvard College Student Participants:
16 Students Exchange Ideas with European Experts
• • • • • • • •
Chinaza Asiegbu Tobias Benn Roshni Chakraborty Michael Cheng Rachel Damle Herkus Gudavicius Emily Markowitz Felipe Muñoz
• • • • • • • •
Pablo Rasmussen Francesco Rolando Mercedes Sapuppo Ajay Sarma Oskar Schulz Helen Simpson Justin Tseng Aristotle Vainikos
At the German Marshall Fund of the United States
Participating Institutions: Workshop Participants at the Center for Hellenic Studies with Workshop Sponsor Elizabeth Sherwood Randall and CES Executive Director Elaine Papoulias (Front row, middle)
In January 2020, CES inaugurated the Europe in Washington Workshop on Democracy and Transatlantic Relations. The initiative, a partnership with Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies (CHS) and the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies (SSTUD), brought 16 undergraduate students to the U.S. Capitol for a fourday study visit. The Washington Workshop was made possible by a generous grant from Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Harvard AB ’81 and United States Deputy Secretary of Energy (2014-2017). In January 2021, Sherwood-Randall was appointed White House Homeland Security Adviser. This new initiative aimed at providing students exposure to transatlantic relations and policymaking to illuminate their fields
At the Embassy of Greece in the United States
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of study. This experiential learning opportunity immersed Harvard College students in discussions with eminent experts on Europe in Washington, D.C. from academia, international organizations, think-tanks, and government agencies. During the Workshop students exchanged ideas with diplomats, professors, analysts, practitioners of public policy and many others.
• • • • • • • • • •
The Brookings Institution The Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University Center for Strategic and International Studies The Embassy of Greece in Washington, D.C. The EU Delegation to the United States The German Marshall Fund of the United States International Monetary Fund Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies McLarty Associates The U.S. Department of State
At the Center for Strategic and International Studies
Students also had a special opportunity to speak with SherwoodRandall about her distinguished career in public service. The Workshop culminated with an event which convened the students and 100 Harvard alumni for a discussion led by Sherwood-Randall on transatlantic relations.
At the Mission of the European Union to the United States
Minda de Gunzburg CENTER FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES at HARVARD
Nicolas Prevelakis
Center for Hellenic Studies Courtyard
Students in conversations with Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall
Gregory Nagy (center ) with Michalis Psalidopoulos & Zoie Lafi
Center for Hellenic Studies
Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall
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Raphaëlle Soffe (Social Studies, Public Economics) German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) – Germany
Undergraduate Grant Recipients
Idil Tuysuzoglu (Government, Scandinavian Studies) Timbro – Sweden Jade Woods (Government) Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation (IHJR) – The Netherlands
Katherine Lempres
SENIOR THESIS GRANT RECIPIENTS Tomasz Maciak (Social Studies) Conceptions of Democracy in Two Polish Towns
Michael Cheng
INTERNSHIP GRANT RECIPIENTS Maia Alberts (Undeclared) Mostar Summer Youth Programme (MSYP) – Bosnia and Herzegovina Lauren Anderson (Social Studies, European History, Politics and Societies) U.S. Department of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs – USA Sophia Armenakas (Philosophy, Art, Film and Visual Studies) Center for Hellenic Studies – Greece Chinaza Asiegbu (History, African Studies) United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) – France Tobias Benn (Undeclared) Goethe-Institut New York – USA Samantha Carrillo (Psychology) The Loop – United Kingdom Michael Cheng (History, Mathematics) Institute for Policy Research, University of Bath – United Kingdom Kyra Colbert (Government) Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) – Serbia
*Stanley H. Hoffmann Undergraduate Research and Travel Grant Recipient
Emily Markowitz (Economics, Social Studies) System Populists and Policy Populists: A New Lens for Exploring the Rise of Populism in Western Europe
Salomé Garnier (Government, Global Health and Health Policy) Center for International Studies and Research, Sciences Po – France
*Stanley H. Hoffmann Undergraduate Research and Travel Grant Recipient
Deni Hoxha (Economics) Office of the Mayor of Tirana – Albania Ali Jebari (Social Studies) Vaughan Avocats – France Drin Krasniqi (Economics, Computer Science) Kosovo Pension Savings Trust (KPST) – Kosovo Tadhg Larabee (Philosophy) Hot Press Magazine – Ireland Nikita Lledo (Government, Anthropology) Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) – Serbia
Ajay Sarma Regan Brady (Economics, European History, Politics and Societies) How Will Welfare States Adapt to the Future of Work? A Case Study of the United Kingdom and Denmark *Stanley H. Hoffmann Undergraduate Research and Travel Grant Recipient
Hannah Craig (History & Literature) Children of the Ceasefire: An Analysis of the Post-Good Friday Generation in Northern Ireland *Stanley H. Hoffmann Undergraduate Research and Travel Grant Recipient
Alice Donnellan (Comparative Literature) Motherhood and Queer Love: Recuperating Female and Minority French-Speaking Poets (1900-1950)
*Stanley H. Hoffmann Undergraduate Research and Travel Grant Recipient
Aliénor Manteau (English & Philosophy) Puy du Fou – France Nidhi Patel (Government, Neuroscience) Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation (IHJR) – The Netherlands Ajay Sarma (Government) Real Instituto Elcano – Spain
Ciara Hervás (History & Literature, Women, Gender & Sexuality, Mind, Brain & Behavior) Seeing Beyond the Binary: The Photographic Construction of Queer Identity in 20th Century Europe Katherine Lempres (History & Literature, Classical Civilizations) Remember That You Are Not a Woman: Women and Resistance in the Italian Social Republic, 1943-1945 *Stanley H. Hoffmann Undergraduate Research and Travel Grant Recipient
* Real Colegio Complutense Grant Recipient
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Minda de Gunzburg CENTER FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES at HARVARD
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Elizabeth Oehmler (Sociology, Global Health & Health Policy) A Study of Scottish Nationalism under Brexit
* Stanley H. Hoffmann Undergraduate Research and Travel Grant Recipient
Francesco Rolando (Social Studies, Molecular & Cellular Biology) Healthcare As a Border: Migrants’ Access to and Exclusion from Healthcare Services in Turin, Italy * Stanley H. Hoffmann Undergraduate Research and Travel Grant Recipient
Leo Saenger (Applied Mathematics) Overtourism and its Impacts on the Authenticity of Venetian Streetscapes Priscilla Samey (Social Studies, Global Health & Health Policy) Beyond the Glass Ceiling: The Impact of Femininity in Modern British Politic * Stanley H. Hoffmann Undergraduate Research and Travel Grant Recipient
Nathaniel Steele (Social Studies, Music) The Impact of Nationalism on Music Education in Germany and the United States
* Stanley H. Hoffmann Undergraduate Research and Travel Grant Recipient
Taylor Whitsell (Government, European History, Politics and Societies, 2021) Explaining Stagnation in Domestic War Crimes Prosecutions in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia
* Stanley H. Hoffmann Undergraduate Research and Travel Grant Recipient
Yuke Zheng (Computer Science) The Impact of Overtourism in the Mediterranean Basin 15
Student Profile Learning Through Experience How Pablo Rasmussen became a Rugged Internationalist
Pablo Rasmussen graduated in 2020 with a concentration in government and a secondary field in European History, Politics and Societies (EHPS), which is administered by CES. He was a very engaged member of the CES community and the connection between Harvard and Europe. Among others, Rasmussen received two CES internship grants, participated in the inaugural Europe in Washington Workshop, and founded The Thomas V. Sullivan Society.
Pablo Rasmussen ‘20 didn’t know what to expect when he found the list of European summer internships on the CES website. Dizzy with the prospect of living abroad, he applied to all of them. “I thought, you know, it’d be Brussels, Berlin, Paris, London. Right. I got the internship in Belgrade, Serbia.” In 2018 with no experience in the region, Rasmussen headed to the Balkans to work for The Center for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), a non-profit, non-governmental, educational institution focused on the use of nonviolent action.
Born in Mexico City to a Mexican-Danish family, Rasmussen was surrounded by a mixing of cultures and languages. He remembers as a child watching his Danish grandfather reading the Mexican newspaper every day, “I would sit on the floor while he was reading. He would take the sections of the newspaper and put them down as he was finishing them. And I would just pick them up.” As he tried to understand the articles, his grandfather, a former diplomat for the Danish foreign service, would answer all his questions giving him an early insight into the world of politics, economics, and current events.
“In this world of exchanging from Harvard to DC to Belgrade, Strasbourg, ... Oklahoma, we all have to be our own diplomats. I can say that I’m from Oklahoma; I have a Mexican family; I went to school at Harvard; I represent all of these things.” – Pablo Rasmussen When not working, he was falling in love with the historically, culturally dense city of Belgrade. “You cannot go to a place like that and not have so many questions,” Rasmussen enthused. He still considers Belgrade to be one of the most interesting cities he has visited. The seemingly daunting task of heading to a foreign country to face new intellectual challenges was not unfamiliar to Rasmussen. 16
Even as he learned through listening, Rasmussen’s international family stressed the importance of travel. “They always had this big emphasis that you had to learn about the world through seeing it.
tolerant.” He only felt sure of his place in America when he found Youth and Government, a YMCA program that allows high schoolers to serve in model governments. “In this club, I wasn’t a Mexican immigrant. People didn’t care where I came from. They didn’t care about my background, they cared: Can I speak? Can I express my ideas?”The early lessons of his family came through, not only learning by experience, but also the importance of contextualizing issues through a broader internationalist lens. This meant connecting the policy issues of Oklahoma with possible international solutions. For his high school peers, it seemed strange to cite the policies of the European Union when talking about state policy, “to them it was apples and oranges, but to me it made sense.”When he arrived at Harvard in the fall of 2016, he quickly found people who didn’t consider the intricacies of domestic and international policy to be apples and oranges. The internship in Serbia brought him through the doors of CES. At CES he met more people with an “Atlantic mindset”, people who viewed the world from somewhere between Europe and the U.S. In the summer of 2019, he engaged in another opportunity through CES to go to Strasbourg, France, and work as the Innovation Policy Intern for the European Ombudsman. Finally marrying his passion for Europe and government, he worked within the European Parliament building, although the European Ombudsman is an independent institution. Present right after the European elections, he was in the European Parliament for the first two plenary sessions. “It was a very nitty gritty, bureaucratic kind of analysis and then I’d go to lunch and see politics going on in the most exciting of senses.” These experiences helped guide him as he made bolder forays into the world of international affairs and European politics. Now as a new Harvard graduate, Rasmussen recalls a moment that helped shape his mindset going forward. While at the European Conference at Harvard, at which he was a constant attendee, he misheard a speaker who said the modern internationalist must be rooted, as in rooted in reality. “I heard rugged instead of rooted, and I thought that sounded so much better.” “He considered the rugged internationalist to be a multifaceted cultural pioneer who is forging forward through the complex wildness of global thought. “It’s the idea that in this world of exchanging from Harvard to D.C. to Belgrade, Strasbourg, Europe in general, but more broadly, even places like Oklahoma, we all have to be our own diplomats. I can say that I’m from Oklahoma; I have a Mexican family; I went to school, Harvard; I represent all of these things.” As he considers his own future, which is populated with new worlds to discover and fold into his understanding of the current political schema, he wants to represent, as an internationalist, “a little bit of this rugged fearlessness.”
The Secondary Field in European History, Politics, and Societies (EHPS) offers students the opportunity to pursue an interdisciplinary course of study focused on modern Europe, in particular its politics, economics, history, and social and cultural developments.
Declared Regan Brady (Economics) Colin Gray-Hoehn (Government) Michael Cheng (History, Biophysics) Noah Dasanaike (Government) Alec Fischthal (History), Mike Johnson (Economics) Mary Kolesar (Applied Mathematics) Lauren Anderson (Social Studies) Alexandra Todorova (History) Taylor Whitsell (Government) Camden Archambeau (Government) Tobias Benn (History) Florian Bochert (Government) Garrett O’Brien (Social Studies) Michael Pak (Economics)
Graduated Luka Kordic ‘17 (Statistics) Camelia Valldejuly ‘17 (Economics) Akshay Verma ‘17 (Economics) Marko Kostich ‘18 (Government) Alex Stevenson ‘18 (Classics) Spencer Ma ‘19 (Government) Pablo Rasmussen ‘20 (Government) Ben Roy ‘20 (Classics) Mason Sands ‘20 (Government)
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9 Graduated 8 Disciplines
Rasmussen had an opportunity to learn about the world when at age eight he moved from Mexico to Oklahoma. “All of a sudden I was an immigrant growing up in a place that is not the most Minda de Gunzburg CENTER FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES at HARVARD
CES Secondary Field Students
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Student Engagement
Students Share Europe Experiences at Destination World Destination World is an event designed for Harvard undergraduates to hear from their peers about how international experiences have shaped their lives. Featured as part of the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs’ Worldwide Week at Harvard, Destination World highlights the
remarkable breadth of the University’s global engagement. CES grant recipients were among the students selected to present at Destination World. They shared their European work and research experiences with fellow students.
Destination World was co-sponsored by Harvard’s Asia Center, Center for African Studies, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard China Fund, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Korea Institute, Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Office of FAS International Affairs, Office of International Education, Program on US-Japan Relations, and Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
CES Revives Student Society at Harvard College In 2019 CES deepened its engagement with undergraduates by reviving the CES Student Society, formerly known as the Harvard College European Society. The Society is a platform to offer undergraduates meaningful opportunities to engage in the study and exploration of Europe at Harvard. It is sponsored by CES and works closely with European clubs at Harvard on joint events.
Chinaza Asiegbu
Taking Research Remote
(History, Secondary in African Studies and French Citation) In October 2020, Asiegbu shared her virtual internship experience at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which was supported by a CES internship grant this summer. (Watch her presentation above).
Russell Reed
2019 CES Senior Thesis Grant Recipient Reed presented on his summer research in Belgium for his thesis entitled “The Killing of a Sacred Ape: Colonial Racial Science and Gorilla Conservation in the Albertine Rift.”
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As Harvard transitioned to remote teaching in March 2020, CES sought ways to support students remotely. In April, Hannah Callaway and Michael Tworek, led a session on Conducting Remote Research for as part of the CES Thesis Workshop for Juniors.
CES Resident Faculty Mary D. Lewis also initiated a virtual session for CES Senior Thesis Grant Recipients. During the session, she guided them through a wealth of online resources and archives available at Harvard.
Oskar Schulz
2019 CES Internship Grant Recipient Schulz spoke about two internships he held that summer: the first was as a research assistant to Johannes Vogel, Member of the Bundestag, in Berlin. He also explored the world of finance at TowerBrook in London.
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2020 SENIOR THESIS WORKSHOP PRESENTERS Lily Jacobs “Frankfurt School Critical Theory: A Contemporary Colonial Conversation” Matthew Keating “From Lesvos to Leipzig: Comparative Legal Frameworks & Obstacles for LGBT Asylum Seekers in the EU” Russell Reed “Savage Guerrilla, Sacred Ape: Defining Human and State in Central African Mountain Gorilla Conservation” Vanessa Ruales Navas “The UK’s Nutritional Labelling System: The Role of the Public Health Sector” Rebecca Thau “Algerian, Jewish, and (Maybe) French Theory: The Intellectual Reverberations of Jacques Derrida and Hélène Cixous’ Mixité”
Senior Thesis Workshop CES’ Thesis Workshop for Juniors is aimed at guiding Harvard College students through the process of writing a senior thesis. The workshops are organized and led by Sally Hayes and Michael Tworek. Intended for students interested in writing on a Europe-focused topic, sessions are open to all Harvard College students, preferably Juniors, regardless of geographic- or subjectarea focus. As part of this workshop, in November, CES thesis research grantees had the opportunity to present their research and preliminary findings and receive constructive feedback during
their writing process from faculty, scholars and fellow students. It allows the community to engage with up-and-coming topics being explored within European research. Also, students, who are considering to apply for CES senior thesis grants, receive a more conclusive look into what to expect in regard to the grant and writing a senior thesis. Eight of the 2019 Senior Thesis Grant recipients presented their preliminary findings at the annual CES Senior Thesis Conference. (see list of students on p. 21)
Benjamin Roy “φιλο/ξενο/φοβος : Cretan Identity in Literature After the Wars of the 1940’s”
May Wang “Irrational Chromatics: Structure and Form of Color in Hardy, Flaubert, and Herschel” Selena Zhao “Mass vs. Elite-level Sectarianism in Consociational Northern Ireland”
CHAIRS AND COMMENTATORS Hannah Callaway Lecturer in the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies and CES Thesis Workshop Organizer, Harvard University Taru Haapala Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, Autonomous University of Madrid; CES Visiting Scholar 2019-2020, Harvard University Michael Tworek Research Associate, History Department, and CES Thesis Workshop Organizer, Harvard University Anna Malandrino CES Visiting Scholar 2019-2020, Harvard University
Three Seniors Honored for Outstanding Research Three seniors who received a CES Senior Thesis Grant in 2019 were honored with awards for their completed theses on Europe-related topics: • Matthew Keating’s thesis “From Lesvos to Leipzig: Comparative Legal Frameworks and Obstacles for LGBTQ Asylum Seekers in the European Union” was awarded the Thomas Temple Hoopes Prize. • Rebecca Thou’s thesis “French’ Theory? The Intellectual Reverberations of Hélène Cixous’ Juiféminité” received the Edward Chandler Cumming Prize (awarded for the thesis of highest distinction in History & Literature) and the Harry and Cecile Starr Prize (awarded for the best thesis in Jewish Studies). • Selena Zhao’s thesis “Understanding the Elite-Mass Divergence in Sectarianism: A Case Study of Northern Ireland”received the Philo Sherman Bennett Prize (awarded by the Department of Government for the best essay discussing the principles of free government).
Selena Zhao
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Matthew Keating
Rebecca Thou 21
Yugoslavia Revisited (see more on p. xx)
Event Event Highlights Highlights Kostas Bakoyanis (center) with Harvard students 2019-20 marked the 50th anniversary of CES, which was commemorated through a series of special events throughout this academic year. Taking stock of the collective accomplishments of the CES community over the years provided reasons for celebration and inspiration to continue to advance the Center’s timeless mission. Below is a selection of events in the 50th Anniversary Events Series as well as highlights from other seminars that took place at CES or virtually.
August Zaleski Memorial Lecture in Modern Polish History Poland in the Global Wave of Populism
Anna Grzymała-Busse – Douglas Professor of International Studies, Stanford University; CES Senior Fellow, Harvard University Bart Bonikowski – Associate Professor of Sociology & CES Resident Faculty), Harvard University Chair Grzegorz Ekiert – Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Government & CES Director, Harvard University
CES 50th Anniversary Series Troubling Times for Gender Equality Politics: German and European Experiences Caitlyn Collins – Assistant Professor of Sociology and of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies , Washington University in St. Louis Angelika von Wahl – Chair, International Affairs Program, and Associate Professor, Lafayette University Mary C. Brinton – Reischauer Institute Professor of Sociology and Director, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University; CES Faculty Associate, Harvard University Kathrin Zippel – Professor of Sociology, Northeastern University; CES Local Affiliate & Seminar Co-chair, Harvard University Louise Davidson-Schmich – Professor of Political Science, University of Miami Myra Marx Ferree – Alice H. Cook Professor of Sociology (Emerita), University of WisconsinMadison; CES Local Affiliate & Seminar Co-chair, Harvard University Sarah Wiliarty – Associate Professor of Government, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and German Studies, and Tutor, College of Social Studies, Wesleyan University Laura Levine Frader – Professor of History, Northeastern University; CES Local Affiliate, Harvard University
Director’s Seminar
Anna Grzymala-Busse with Grzegorz Ekiert & Bart Bonikowski
The Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk: Crossroads of History, Memory and Politics
Pawel Machcewicz – Professor of History, Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences; Director of the Museum of the Second World War (2008-2017) David Armitage – Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History, Harvard University; CES Faculty Associate, Harvard University Ewa Lajer-Burcharth – William Dorr Boardman Professor of Fine Arts & Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University Grzegorz Ekiert – Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Government & CES Director, Harvard University
European Economic Policy Forum European Economic Policy Forum — Europe’s Travails: Forging a French-German Response in an Era of Transatlantic Disequilibrium Henrik Enderlein – President and Professor of Political Economy, Hertie School Jean Pisani-Ferry – Senior Professor of Economics and Public Management, Hertie School; Senior Fellow, Bruegel Jeffrey Frankel – James W. Harpel Professor of Capital Formation and Growth, Harvard Kennedy School Vivien A. Schmidt – Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration and Professor of International Relations and Political Science, Boston University; CES Local Affiliate, Harvard University Hans-Helmut Kotz – Visiting Professor of Economics, Harvard University; CES Resident Faculty & Seminar Co-chair, Harvard University
European Union Seminar Reinventing Athens – A Conversation with Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis Kostas Bakoyannis – Mayor of Athens Chair Elaine Papoulias – CES Executive Director, Harvard University
Guido Goldman Lecture on Germany Challenges to Democracy in the European Union: An Address by Sergey Lagodinsky Mary C. Brinton, Laura Levine Frader, Myra Marx Ferree, Sarah Wiliarty (front row); Caitlyn Collins, Kathrin Zippel, Louise Davidson-Schmich, Angelika von Wahl (back row)
Transformations of European Ideologies – Marking the Retirement of Charles S. Maier and Patrice Higonnet
Suzanne Berger – John M. Deutch Institute Professor, MIT; CES Faculty Associate, Harvard University Patrice Higonnet – Robert Walton Goelet Research Professor of French History Emeritus & CES Resident Faculty, Harvard University Charles Maier – Leverett Saltonstall Research Professor of History, CES Resident Faculty, Harvard University Adam Nossiter – Paris Bureau Chief, The New York Times Grzegorz Ekiert – Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Government & CES Director, Harvard University Peter A. Hall – Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies & CES Resident Faculty, Harvard University
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Marie-Janine Calic – Professor of Eastern and Southeastern European History, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich Vesko Garčević – Professor of the Practice of International Relations, The Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University Susan Woodward – Professor of Political Science, The Graduate Center, City University of New York Martin Karplus – Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, Harvard University; Nobel Laureate (2013) Grzegorz Ekiert – Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Government & CES Director, Harvard University
Minda de Gunzburg CENTER FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES at HARVARD
Sergey Lagodinsky – Member of the European Parliament, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance Chair Karl Kaiser – Fellow, Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School; John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow, 1977-1978 Seminar Co-chair, & CES Visiting Scholar 1985, Harvard University
Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History Justification and Alienation: Kant, Marx and Contemporary Critical Theory
Rainer Forst – Professor of Political Theory and Philosophy, Goethe University Frankfurt Peter E. Gordon – Amabel B. James Professor of History; CES Resident Faculty & Seminar Co-chair, Harvard University
Rainer Forst
For more information about CES Event Series click here. CES R E V I E W 2 0 19 - 2 0 2 0
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Fall 2020 Joaquín Almunia European Commissioner for Competition (2010-2014) Marco Buti Head of Cabinet, European Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Taxation
Leslie Vinjamuri Director, US and the Americas Program, Chatham House Daniela Schwarzer Director, German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) Beatrice Weder di Mauro President, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) Pierre Larrouturou Member of European Parliament
Jens Weidmann President, Deutsche Bundesbank
Public Officials and Thought Leaders at CES 2019-2020 Christos Stylianides Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid & Crisis Management, European Commission (2014-2019)
Philippe Le Corre Non-resident Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Sergey Lagodinsky Member of the European Parliament, Group of the Greens/ European Free Alliance
Carsten Brzeski Chief German Economist, ING Bank
Berend Diekmann Head of Division for USA, Canada and Mexico, Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), Federal Republic of Germany
Michaela Wiegel Correspondent, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Yascha Mounk Senior Fellow, SNF Agora Institute, Johns Hopkins University
Stavros Lambrinidis Ambassador of the European Union to the United States
Philippe Etienne Ambassador of France to the United States
Adam Nossiter Paris Bureau Chief, The New York Times
Victoria Nuland U.S. Ambassador to NATO (2005-2008)
Pierre Vimont Executive Secretary-General (2010-2015), European External Action Service (EEAS); Senior Fellow, Carnegie Europe
Thanasis Kontogeorgis Secretary General for the Coordination of Internal Policies, Presidency of the Greek Government
Lech Wałęsa Solidarity Movement Leader; President of Poland (1990-1995); Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (1983)
Alexandra Papadopoulou Ambassador of Greece to the United States
Domingos Fezas Vital Ambassador of Portugal to the United States
Sotiris Tsiodras Chief Scientific Advisor for the Greek Government COVID-19 Pandemic Response
Lorenzo Bini Smaghi Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank (2005-2011)
Laoise Moore Consul General of Ireland to New England
Kostas Bakoyannis Mayor of Athens Carlo Bastasin Non-resident Senior Fellow, Center on the United States and Europe, The Brookings Institution 24
Lech Wałęsa with Grzegorz Ekiert
Michaela Wiegel
Pierre Vimont
Maria Vassilakou Deputy Mayor and Deputy Governor, City of Vienna (2010-2019) Julia Reda Member of the European Parliament (2014-2019) Ioana Petrescu Minister of Economy and Finance, Romania (2014) Minda de Gunzburg CENTER FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES at HARVARD
Elaine Papoulias, Alexandra Papadopoulou, Thanasis Kontogeorgis & Sotiris Tsiodras (left to right) CES R E V I E W 2 0 19 - 2 0 2 0
Benjamin Friedman, Jens Weidmann, Hans-Helmut Kotz & Beatrice Weder di Mauro (left to right) 25
You detail Herzl’s neuroses, drawing a picture of a needy and immature man. Would you talk about how he displaced these needs from his marriage and family to a larger stage?
Herzel Re-imagined
Derek Penslar weighs the impact of Theodor Herzl’s personal power Derek Penslar, William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History at Harvard University, has long studied modern Jewish history from a global perspective. In his book Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader (Yale University Press, 2020), Penslar, CES Resident Faculty, examined how the founder of modern Zionism’s personal life influenced his political impact.
Your new biography, Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader, focuses on how Herzl’s personal crises as much as broader anti-Semitism propelled him into a leadership role. Do you believe this is particular to Herzl and Zionism, or do you see this as a larger pattern, particularly for charismatic leaders? Penslar: I think this is true for great political leaders across the board, in particular leaders of nationalist movements or anticolonial movements. One of the main arguments in the book is that charisma is dialogic. What made Herzl a great leader was a combination of his own internal drives and the fact that he was the right man in the right place at the right time. Charisma means nothing if there’s no one to be charismatic for – the charismatic is defined by their audience. At the fin de siècle, there was a certain type of European Jew who was looking for a great leader, someone to inspire them. There was a Jewish national idea in the air. And then along came Herzl. He very much was the right man in the right place at the right time, who also had qualities of genius and leadership. And it didn’t hurt that he was a strikingly handsome man with a nice beard. Although Herzl was raised in comfortable circumstances in Budapest, he fabricated a dramatic family history to his first biographer, giving his Eastern European family a higher-status history as converts under the Spanish Inquisition. Could you discuss his capacity for re-invention and elaborate on how this shaped the leader he became? 26
Penslar: It certainly is typical of Herzl to invent a more colorful past, but it was not uncommon in his era for Jews of Ashkenazi [Eastern European] origin to try to tie themselves to the Sephardic [Spanish or Portuguese] past because it was associated with distinction, with a kind of Jewish royalty. Ashkanazim often believed in Sephardic superiority. There are, even to this day, Jews with quintessentially Ashkenazic backgrounds who insist that a certain branch of their family is Sephardic. It’s seen as exotic and ennobling. Herzl identified with the Prussian nobility and tried several times to join the military. Would you discuss how this failure to assimilate as he’d hoped led to his search for an alternative? Penslar: There is a critique of Zionism that Zionism is the ultimate form of assimilation because it presents Jews as a nation, like other nations, and claims Jews must have a homeland as other nations have a homeland and have a national language as other people have national languages. This goal of turning Jews into “normal” people is a form of assimilation. There are ultra-Orthodox Jews who to this day say that the state of Israel is essentially a carbon copy of a gentile state. Herzl’s Zionism does reflect, in a way, the desire to be a good European. He envisions a state where people will speak European languages and consume European culture. Even when he becomes a Zionist, there’s a part of him that is still connected with the goal of assimilation.
Minda de Gunzburg CENTER FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES at HARVARD
Penslar: Herzl was very needy, overly attached to his parents, and rather narcissistic, and he could not find satisfaction in the role of husband. To be a good husband, to be a good spouse, you have to give of yourself, and you have to really be there for the other person. Also, Herzl couldn’t really be comfortable in the role of parent because, as we all know, parents sacrifice for their children. He was willing to sacrifice himself – but to a cause of his own making. He created the political Zionist movement. He was its center, and he felt empowered and adored. That’s very different from the humdrum pleasures of being a husband or a father. Herzl found himself – and his voice – as a journalist in Paris. Would you elaborate on how this period shaped him or shaped his writing of his seminal work, The Jewish State? Penslar: Herzl was a journalist through and through. Even as a teenager, when he started writing his first journalistic pieces, he was a master of description and quick analysis. He knows how to get his point across quickly, and he knows how to conjure up effective imagery. He was also very good at evoking emotion when he wrote about the working classes and the suffering of the poor. He wrote in a way that evoked feelings of compassion and pity. In the same way, in his Zionist writings, he eloquently expressed the needs of the Jewish people. His journalism trained him how to write an effective political manifesto. Herzl’s conflicting feelings about Jewishness – vacillating on whether it was a religion or a race – seems to have led to his embrace of Zionism. Would you talk about this conflict and how Zionism resolved it? Penslar: Even though he himself was not religiously observant and he knew that many Jews in his day were not religiously observant, Herzl still saw the Jewish religion as a unifying force. He wrote that what unites Jews might ultimately be a sense of ethnicity, but that it is often defined through religion. The religion is ultimately a bond, even if we’re not religious people. Herzl believed that Jews shared a common sense of relationship with the God of Israel. Herzl’s novel Altneuland about an ideal future Jewish homeland is peppered with references to God, although the homeland he envisions is entirely secular. The story of Moses mattered a great deal to Herzl, largely because he thought he was a second Moses. He did not believe that Jews could be defined in racial terms because Jews from different parts of the world look so different. I think he was actually on to something about modern Jewish identity, which often flees from religion yet still relies on it. CES R E V I E W 2 0 19 - 2 0 2 0
RESIDENT FACULTY Grzegorz Ekiert
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Government & CES Director
Alison Frank Johnson Professor of History
Peter E. Gordon
Amabel B. James Professor of History
Peter A. Hall
Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies
Patrice Higonnet
Robert Walton Goelet Research Professor of French History, Emeritus
Maya Jasanoff
Coolidge Professor of History
Hans-Helmut Kotz
Visiting Professor of Economics
Mary D. Lewis
Robert Walton Goelet Professor of French History
Charles Maier
Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History
Derek Penslar
William Lee Frost Professor of Modern Jewish History
Daniel Ziblatt
Eaton Professor of the Science of Government
How do you view the role of charismatic leaders like Herzl in our current crisis? Are they useful in rallying support or mass action, or do they distract from necessary actions or experts? Do you see any Herzl-like leaders emerging in this current crisis? Penslar: You need charismatic leaders to get things started. An anti-colonial movement that’s trying to throw off colonial oppression needs a charismatic leader like Gandhi or, if you’re starting a national movement from scratch, like Herzl. Once you have a wellestablished state, you want competence. You want people like Angela Merkel or, with all due respect, Justin Trudeau, who has turned out to be a much better leader than I would’ve given him credit for. 27
New Graduate Student Affiliates
GRADUATE PROGRAMS
Graduate students are a vital part of the CES community and have been central to the Center’s mission since its founding in 1969. Harvard and MIT graduate students in the social sciences with an interest and research area focus in Europe are encouraged to apply to become Graduate Student Affiliates of CES. Graduate students are eligible to apply from their first year of graduate school studies. This year, CES granted affiliation to 10 new students. They join a group of 52 other graduate students who joined CES in prior years.
Clare Bradford Anderson Ph.D. Student in History Karl Milutin Aspelund Ph.D. Student in Economics, MIT
CES believes in the value of field work for scholars of European studies. Thanks to an endowment originally provided by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, the Center awarded Dissertation Research Fellowships for 13 students to support one year of field research in Europe for the academic year 2019-2020. CES also awarded Dissertation Completion Fellowships to enable five students to complete their dissertations in 2019-2020.
Krupp Foundation Dissertation Research Fellowship
Dissertation Completion Fellowship Recipients
Elena Ayala-Hurtado (Sociology) – Insecurity and Disenchantment among the Educationally Privileged
Alex Mierke-Zatwarnicki (Government) – Political Parties & The Crafting of Identitybased Politics
Aniket De (History) – Federalism in Empire: Britain, Germany and India, 19191947
Hannah Pinkham (History) – Imperial Brothers: Fraternity in the French Colonial Empire
Max Ehrenfreund (History of Science) – Body Economic: Modernist Social Science in Vienna
Cresa Pugh (Sociology & Social Policy) – Antiquities Diplomacy: Cultural Heritage Restitution in the Postcolonial Era
Elaine Fitz Gibbon (Musicology) – Musiktheater in Transit: Circum-Atlantic Perspectives on Avant-garde Music Theater (1945-Present)
Mikko Silliman (Education) – Education Policy, Inequality, and The Welfare State: Evidence from Finland
Nathan Grau (History) – France’s Forgotton Soldiers: Local Paramilitaries on the Frontlines of Decolonization, 19451962 Jacobé Huet (Architecture) – White Cubes, European Modernism, and Mediterranean Vernacular
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Catherine Fitzgerald Boyle Ph.D. Student in International History
Rephael Stern (History) ¬– Afterlives of Empire: Postcolonial State Formation, 1939-1967 Lukas Wolters (Political Science, MIT) – Varieties of Wealth Inequality: Social Policy and Wealth Accumulation in Advanced Capitalist Societies
Kelly Brignac (History) – African Indentured Labor in the French Empire, 1817-1861 John Dilworth (Music & Philosophy) – Oratorio and Liberal Modernity in Britain, 1830-1870
Ye Zhang Ph.D. Student in Government Note: Unless otherwise noted, all graduate students are enrolled at Harvard University.
Roman Klimke Ph.D. Student in Public Policy
A full listing of CES Graduate Student Affiliates can be found on the website.
Sarah Walsh Mallory Ph.D. Student in History of Art & Architecture
Bo Yun Park (Sociology) – Is (S)He Presidential? The Changing Scripts of Political Leadership, 1995-2020
17+ Disciplines
Sezen Unluonen (English) – Historicization and Anachronism in the Nineteenth-Century Anglophone World
55 Graduate Student Affiliates
Ye Zhang (Government) – Midas’ Curse: The Politics of Decline in Leading Economies
Minda de Gunzburg CENTER FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES at HARVARD
Daniel Timothy Roberts Ph.D. Student in Government
Carmelo Ignaccolo Ph.D. Student in Urban Studies and Planning Design, MIT
Hansong Li Ph.D. Student in Government
Gili Kliger (History) – Colonial Reformation: Religion, Empire, and the Origins of Modern Social Thought
Sun Young Park Ph.D. Student in Government
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GRADUATE STUDENT PROFILE
Veganism from Extreme to Mainstream
Nina Gheihman is a former CES Graduate Student Affiliate, who graduated in 2020 from Harvard University with a Ph.D. in sociology. Currently, she is jointly appointed as a postdoctoral researcher at the Sustainable Food Initiative at University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and is a Visiting Scholar in the Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School.
Overcoming the Odds Nina Gheihman is no stranger to unexpected twists of fate. When she originally proposed a dissertation focused on veganism, she was strongly cautioned against focusing her work on such a fringe topic. However, she wasn’t deterred and as a result, she got to witness the innerworkings of just how this niche activist movement evolved into a cultural behemoth. Fast-forward five years and once again she was, along with the world, embroiled in a major upheaval. This was a global pandemic, which disrupted the final months of her Ph.D. candidacy. “I was in the final throes of finishing my dissertation and, as everybody tells you, the last few months are really intense. And on top of that, I’m actually Canadian so I didn’t know if I would have to go back to Canada.” Thankfully, Gheihman was able to stay in the U.S. and, while initially disappointed that her friends and family couldn’t come to her defense in person, she quickly realized that with a virtual defense the whole world was open to her. Her research, which was funded through a Krupp Foundation Dissertation Research Fellowship from CES and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, sent her to France, Israel, and California. Via the wonders of Zoom, she was able to invite over 75 people from across the globe to witness the fruits of her labor.
Looking Forward
more present in mainstream culture. Gheihman’s research has charted how veganism became a high-profile, elite trend, but also how the concept of eating “plant-based” has been integrated into day to day life. “As a sociologist, I’m trying to take a step back and realize how all these forces are coming together in order to mainstream this movement.” Gheihman’s work has identified the major methods through which this cultural shift occurred. Broadly she has identified three strong pathways by which veganism took
“Whether you agree with it or not, I think vegan entrepreneurs have really affected the popular culture and are shifting us towards a more plant-based diet. And I wanted to tell their story.” – Nina Gheihman on cultural significance. These include its popularization by high-profile individuals, its presence on knowledge platforms such as social media and entertainment heavyweights like Netflix, and finally through the founding of companies who are providing protein alternatives that are feeding a public increasingly hungry for plant-based options. “I thought the story of how veganism mainstreamed would be one about the battle between activists versus the entrepreneurs. However, I discovered that most of the entrepreneurs are former activists, who realized that education or advocacy was only going to get us so far in terms of convincing people
Gheihman’s work shows that veganism is far from fringe, now it’s a force to be reckoned with. What’s more, vegan food is not a distinct and separate subgroup as almost every food has a vegan counterpart - and a tasty one at that. Gheihman still occasionally indulges in her beloved ice-cream, cashew-based of course. “Whether you agree with it or not, I think vegan entrepreneurs have really affected the popular culture and are shifting us towards a more plant-based diet. And I wanted to tell their story.”
Starts A Virtual Friday Lunch Tradition The vegan lifestyle movement is a growing global phenomenon, with many inspired to adopt plant-based diets for ethical, environmental, and health reasons. Yet, the lifestyle is controversial, and is viewed differently around the world. CES opened its new Food for Thought Seminar with a talk by Nina Gheihman to explore what it takes for societies to “cross the cultural chasm” between the early adopters and the mainstream, and the role of cultural entrepreneurship in translating global cultural practices into local societal contexts. The discussion was chaired by CES Visiting Scholar Albana Shehaj.
Her book aims to educate, but also illustrate veganism’s incredible development over time. Currently, many people think of veganism as extreme, but as the health benefits, animal rights concerns and environmental advantages of vegan options become obvious, veganism has become Minda de Gunzburg CENTER FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES at HARVARD
“it’s really just trying to reduce the meat at the center of your plate and increasing whatever else is on your plate already.”
Food for Thought Seminar
Now in California, Gheihman is working on converting her dissertation into a book for a general audience. “It is so important to educate. It’s still important to promote this change in the food system.” She hopes to put out her book, How It All Vegan: The Inside Story of Icons, Informers, and Innovators Who Changed Food Forever, in 2022. This engaging look at the rise of veganism seeks to disentangle a complicated web that started with the rise of the meat and dairy industry in the post-WWII boom. Threads in this web include the meat and dairy hegemony, the subliminal messaging that pervades how we as a society engage with food, and the shifting societal role that veganism has, and continues to have, in the collective consciousness.
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to shift their diet.” It’s getting easier, and despite the global economic downturn in the vegan sector business is booming. Meat alternatives are stocking the shelves and many major businesses are pouring money into vegan-friendly products. Gheihman noted, “(vegan) products used to be created for this niche subculture. And now actually the target is the omnivores.” Research shows that individuals enacting small changes with what they eat, could make a huge positive difference in creating a sustainable, healthier food system. This could mean integrating some vegan alternatives, or as Gheihman put it,
This seminar is the virtual continuation of the Center’s long tradition of Friday Lunch.
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Adapting to Change
Max Goplerud’s Progression from Student to Teacher
Three CES Graduate Students earn Ph.D.s.
Max Goplerud received his Ph.D. from the Department of Government at Harvard University in 2020. At CES, he was a Graduate Student Affiliate and Co-chair of the Seminar on Populism. In the fall, he joined the Department of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh as an assistant professor. Can you address the experience of having to finish your dissertation and end your academic journey at Harvard with the onslaught of COVID-19?
Training graduate students has always been a central mission of CES. This year, the following students completed their degrees:
I’ve been very fortunate in how COVID-19 has impacted my research. The work I do is more computational based, not having access to the libraries was less catastrophic than if I was a historian, for example. There was some data that would have been useful, and I knew exactly where it was in the Harvard library, but I couldn’t get to it. That was frustrating, but in the grand scheme of how people’s research was disrupted, it was very minor.
Nina Gheihman (Sociology) Max Goplerud (Government) Elissa Berwick (Political Science)
In general, my advisors were good about staying in touch and continuing meetings online. That is obviously not that same as being in person but allowed for a decent amount of contact with everyone throughout the final process. It was obviously sad not to be able to see colleagues and friends around the department, but I was able to get everything wrapped up in the end.
Elissa Berwick
In the fall, you’re going to be an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh. This is a time when the whole world of academia is, shall we say, going through a bit of a metamorphosis. What does that look like for you? I’m in Boston now, but I’m moving at the end of July to Pittsburgh. I think, at Harvard and everywhere else in the country, things are clearly being thought through and worked on, but the exact final contours are still not fully decided. In a couple of the classes that I TA’d during my Ph.D., there was a Zoom component. These courses used asynchronous teaching with message boards set up and office hours calibrated for remote students. So, I have some experience with that, but trying to deal with the synchronicity of doing the lecture in person, while also teaching on Zoom will be a little bit delicate. It’s clearly not what anyone expected the fall of 2020 to be. However, the summer allows time for us to think more carefully about how to give everyone the best experience possible. There are changes being made, such as recording more material and putting more online, which are actually useful to do in general. Has the current unfolding global experience affected what you plan on bringing into the classroom? What I will be teaching in the fall is a course for students with limited exposure to programming with the goal of giving them the skills to visualize or present data. It will be interesting because part of the way you help people learn programming is bouncing around the room, talking to people. You do a little bit of a lecture, you give people a task and walk around listening to the processes. That’s harder to do on Zoom, so I’m trying to think carefully about how I can use breakout rooms effectively. I also need to have more office hours, maybe even a drop-in study hall where I’m sitting on Zoom and people can pop in if they have any questions. It’s hard to replace some of the easier face-to-face 32 aspects, but it has to be done.
It’s always difficult to enter a new social structure, but especially now with social distancing. How do you see yourself overcoming some of these obstacles? Yes, that is tricky. People have been really nice about reaching out, saying ‘once you’ve settled in and moved here, we can do a virtual cocktail meet up.’ Everyone being in the office, the light communication, popping into someone’s office, having lunch together, the more low-grade socializing will be hard to replace. But people are being proactive about building those relationships without being physically in the same place. In normal times you do a lot of socializing with åyour colleagues when you move there initially. That may be delayed, but people seem very eager to have some kind of return to normal socializing as much as anyone can do safely. Eventually the pandemic will be in the rear-view mirror. So, on a lighter note, you’re getting on the plane. Where’s that plane going? I actually have a pretty easy answer. For me it would be going back to England. I did my undergrad there, and I have a lot of close friends that I usually see once a year to reconnect. I would normally have gone back in the summer to do that, but clearly that wasn’t happening. That’s it for me, it’s not anything super exciting, just a return to my usual summer routine, but it’s definitely top of the list once normal travel can safely resume. Minda de Gunzburg CENTER FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES at HARVARD
CES DISSERTATION WORKSHOP The CES Dissertation Workshop provides graduate students with a collegial, stimulating environment in which to present their research to peers and faculty members and receive valuable feedback. This year, the following students presented their research. Louis Gerdelan (History) “Disaster tabulation and miraculous deliverances in the eighteenth century” Tugba Bozcaga (Political Science, MIT) “The Social Bureaucrat: How Social Proximity among Bureaucrats Affects Local Governance in Turkey”
Christopher Havasy (Government) “The Last Invention of Governance: The Rise of Bureaucracy and its Reception in Western Europe”
Frank Blibo (History of Science) “The French and Ivorian Heart Care Specialists at the Institut de Cardiologie d’Abidjan, 1976-2017”
Joseph la Hausse de Lalouvière (History) “The experience of re-enslavement in French Guiana, 1794–1809”
Katarzyna Balug (Landscape & Architecture) “Animating Air and the Body at Its Limits”
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all graduate students are Ph.D. candidates at Harvard University.
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GAZETTE: You were working for the CIA or U.S. military intelligence?
Affiliate Profile In translation, he found his raison d’être The following interview was published by the Harvard Gazette on September 3, 2020. Art Goldhammer has been a long-time CES affiliate and chair of the “New Research on Europe Seminar.” He is also the author of the “History of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies” which was written in commemoration of the Center’s 50th anniversary. Surely there are more direct routes to becoming a respected French-language translator than going to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for a Ph.D. in mathematics, getting caught up in the Vietnam draft, and then ditching a teaching career and moving to France. But for Arthur Goldhammer, it was a circuitous path that made perfect sense. A New Jersey native with no formal French-language training, Goldhammer translated more than 125 books on French history and politics, as well as classic texts by Albert Camus and Alexis de Tocqueville, for leading academic publishers including Harvard University Press. In 2014, he achieved some celebrity after producing an English version of a book about global inequality by a young French economist named Thomas Piketty. That opus, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” sold more than 2 million copies. Piketty’s follow-up, “Capital and Ideology,” published this year, was Goldhammer’s last translation before retirement. Besides translating, he’s an author and essayist on contemporary France and French politics, and has taught at Brandeis and Boston universities. Goldhammer has close ties to the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard that date back to the 1970s. He’s currently a local affiliate and chair of the New Research on Europe seminar there. Goldhammer recently spoke with the Gazette about his unusual journey.
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GAZETTE: You have a Ph.D. in math from MIT and yet you’re a leading French literary translator. How did that happen? Goldhammer: I graduated from MIT in ’67 and started graduate school there in ’68 as the Vietnam War was heating up. In the summer of ’68, I went to France for the first time. In those days, you had to notify the draft board when you were leaving the country. And my draft board, which was in South Carolina because my parents had moved there, chose to interpret my traveling abroad as a declaration that I was no longer in school even though it was between my first and second years of graduate school. So they took that as an opportunity to draft me. When I got back from France in September, I found my draft notice waiting. I appealed, and the appeal went all the way to the head of the Selective Service board, who actually ruled in my favor, but he declined to overrule the local draft board. He referred my case back to them with his recommendation that I be given a graduate school deferment, but they refused. So, at that point, my only choice was either to leave the country or submit to being drafted. So I decided I would take my chances with the Army. It was in the interim years between the institution of a draft lottery and the universal college student deferment, so they were not getting many people who were college graduates going into the Army at that point. Whenever they did get one, they tested for foreign language knowledge. I was given a French language test and apparently scored very well on it. And that, coupled with the fact that I played a musical instrument, led them to select me for Vietnamese language training. The musical instrument part is because Vietnamese is a tonal language. So I wound up learning to speak Vietnamese, became moderately fluent, and was sent to Vietnam as part of an intelligence organization.
Minda de Gunzburg CENTER FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES at HARVARD
Goldhammer: I did some liaison work with the CIA, but I was in military [intelligence]. I ended my military service three months early and came back to MIT, where I finished my Ph.D. But my time in the Army had changed my priorities. I had fallen in love with Paris and wanted to spend some time in France. I also wanted to write fiction. I wanted to pursue some studies in history because I wanted to understand better what led to the United States’ involvement in Vietnam. But I didn’t have enough money to quit the path I was on. I was still being supported by a fellowship from the National Science Foundation. I figured that my best course was to continue in math, teach for a while to save up enough money, and then see how things turned out. I got a job at Brandeis and taught there for two years as an assistant professor. After two years of teaching, I’d saved up enough money to support myself for a year in France. I decided I would quit and go off to Paris to live for a while. I had met someone in France who was working for a French sociologist named Michel Crozier. He had just finished a book that he wanted translated into English. My friend was working for him as his assistant so she persuaded him that I would be a good person to translate this book. I had expressed to her my interest in becoming a translator to support myself. That became my
very much or with which I disagreed, but that’s OK. I don’t mind translating books with which I disagree. Now, in some cases, I did meet the author before agreeing to translate the book, especially after I became better known and had lots more contacts in France. That was the case with Piketty. I met him when he came to Harvard to give a lecture before he published “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” which came out in 2013. I met him even before the book was published in French. We had a very good rapport. He [later] credited me with helping to make the book into a best-seller because, although it had sold well in France, it was not going to be a global hit. It was the English translation that brought all the publicity to the book and turned it into a global bestseller. GAZETTE: What’s your work process like? Do you involve the author while you’re translating or steer clear of them as much as possible? Goldhammer: I find that it’s good to consult with authors just because authors are understandably uneasy about being translated, especially if they feel they don’t speak the language particularly well. So you want to reassure them and the best way to reassure them is to work with them. My general process is to translate a chapter and send it to the author if the author wants to be involved — most do; some do not. And then, if they have comments, we discuss their
“Clarity is, of course, important. But for me, the really important thing in translating, even prose, is that all writing has a kind of music to it.” first published translation. That got me connected with the University of Chicago Press, which was a very important connection because they happened to have a backlog of books in French history by a number of well-known historians. After they got my translation of Crozier, they decided to try me on a couple of these books. For the next five years or so, I had a steady stream of work from the University of Chicago Press. Had it not been for that, I probably would not have remained a translator because the hard thing for a freelancer is to break in and get steady work. After the first five years, my reputation was established. I got work from other presses, including Harvard University Press [Piketty’s American publisher], which became my mainstay after Chicago for quite a number of years, and that kept me going for a very long time. GAZETTE: How do you decide which projects to take on? Goldhammer: It’s the author; it’s the subject. Usually there’s time to read if not the entire book, at least a sample. Sometimes you don’t have the entire manuscript in advance, but some part of it is available so you can read and make a judgment. That’s not to say that I haven’t translated some books in my career that I didn’t like CES R E V I E W 2 0 19 - 2 0 2 0
comments. Usually, when I get the book, I start right in translating it. I will sometimes read the whole book before beginning translating, but that’s not always the case. I usually find that the first couple of chapters require more revisions than the later chapters. It takes some time to work yourself into the style of each author. But once you’ve done that, it becomes more natural. GAZETTE: What is your overarching goal? Is it to maintain the author’s voice and the nuance of that, or is it to make the text clear to an English-language audience? French and English are so structurally differnt, and culturally different as well. Goldhammer: Clarity is, of course, important. But for me, the really important thing in translating, even prose, is that all writing has a kind of music to it. You really want to catch the note of the author. Every author has a different timbre, a different voice, and you really want to get that voice insofar as possible. I find that maintaining the rhythm of prose is the essential thing for me. In fact, it’s so important that I find that I can’t translate while listening to music. There is a musical quality to prose as I read it. I hear it in my head, and I don’t like that inner voice to have any competition, even from good music. Read full interview here. 35
Visiting Scholars Friederike Römer & Alexander Horn
The CES Visiting Scholars Program was established at the time of the Center’s inception to identify and enable outstanding social scientists of modern Europe to access and benefit from Harvard’s extensive intellectual resources. Participants include eminent scholars of European studies, as well as academics and policy practitioners who serve or have served as presidents of major universities, think tanks and foundations and ministers of education, finance, and culture.
25 Scholars
JOHN F. KENNEDY MEMORIAL FELLOWS
8 Disciplines
12 Countries
Alexander Horn Assistant Professor of Political Science Aarhus University
Elias Naumann Post-Doctoral Researcher University of Mannheim
Sebastian Kohl Researcher in Comparative Political Economy and Economic Sociology Max-Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Friederike Römer Post-Doctoral Researcher CRC Global Dynamics of Social Policy, University of Bremen
James Dennison Research Fellow The Migration Policy Centre of the European University Institute (EUI)
Fritz Sager Professor of Political Science University of Bern
Taru Haapala Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow Autonomous University of Madrid
Caroline Shaw Associate Professor of History Bates College
Sean McGraw Assistant Professor of Political Science University of Notre Dame
Janick Marina Schaufelbuehl Associate Professor of International History University of Lausanne
Christian Kreuder-Sonnen Assistant Professor for International Organizations Friedrich Schiller University Jena Research Fellow WZB Berlin Social Science Center
Roman Senninger Assistant Professor of Political Science Aarhus University
Anna Malandrino Translator and Lecturer, Italy
Christos Tsakas Carlsberg Postdoctoral Fellow Danish Institute at Athens
Päivi Johanna Neuvonen Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Law University of Helsinki
Gerasimos Tsourapas Senior Lecturer in Middle East Politics University of Birmingham
Ruxandra Paul Assistant Professor of Political Science Amherst College Sebastián Royo Professor of Government and Vice President of International Affairs Suffolk University
Affiliates & Fellows
Lisbeth Aggestam Associate Professor of Political Science and Senior Research Fellow Centre for European Research (CERGU) University of Gothenburg
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Carsten Brzeski, Chief German Economist, ING Bank Stefan Collignon, Professor of Politi,cal Economy Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies; International Chief Economist, Centro Europa Ricerche (CER)
Local Affiliate
Ilse Josepha Lazaroms Lecturer, Graduate Gender Program Utrecht University
Zoltán Ádám Assistant Professor of Economics Corvinus University of Budapest.
Tore Wig Associate Professor University of Oslo
John F. Kennedy Memorial Policy Fellows
GERMAN KENNEDY MEMORIAL FELLOW
VISITING SCHOLARS
Albana Shehaj Research Fellow University of Michigan
David Spreen Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of History, Harvard University
Monika Bauhr Associate Professor of Political Science and Research Fellow The Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg Antoine Camous Assistant Professor of Economics University of Mannheim
Alison K. Stanger
Alison K. Stanger, Russell Leng ’60 Professor of International Politics and Economics, Middlebury College, and Technology and Human Values Senior Fellow, Edmund J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University
Barry Colfer Research Fellow The Institute for the Future of Work Minda de Gunzburg CENTER FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES at HARVARD
Visiting Faculty
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Peter Stevens Minda de Gunzburg CENTER FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES at HARVARD
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ABOUT CES The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) was founded in 1969 at Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences to promote the interdisciplinary understanding of European history, politics, economy and societies. Its mission is to:
CES Year in Review 2019-2020 Editorial & Creative: Gila Naderi – Communications Manager Sarah Palmer – Assistant to the Directors & Programs
• Foster innovative research on and the study of Europe among Harvard faculty as well as graduate and undergraduate students. • Facilitate the training of new generations of scholars and experts in European studies. • Encourage vibrant discussions on European history and contemporary affairs which nurture the exchange of ideas across disciplines, sectors, generations, and across the Atlantic.
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