Stanford University

Margaret Cohen

107 Pigott Hall
Stanford, CA 94305-2031

(650) 724-0106
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Andrew B. Hammond Professor in French Language, Literature, and Civilization
Professor of Comparative Literature
Professor of English
Professor, by courtesy, of French and Italian
cohen_web_profile_0.jpg PhD

Margaret Cohen is the Andrew B. Hammond Professor of French Language, Literature and Civilization at Stanford University, where she is appointed in English and directs the Center for the Study of Novel. Her current fields of research include the novel and narrative as well as interdisciplinary oceanic studies. In her most recent book, The Novel and the Sea (2010), she revealed the impact of the ship’s log and the history of writing about work at sea on the development of the modern novel. The Novel and the Sea received the Louis R. Gottschalk Prize from the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, the George and Barbara Perkins Prize from the International Society for the Study of the Narrative, and an honorable mention from the American Comparative Literature Association.

In The Sentimental Education of the Novel (1999), co-winner of the MLA’s 2000 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for French and Francophone Studies, she recovered forgotten sentimental fiction by women writers important to the emergence of French realism. Other books include Profane Illumination: Walter Benjamin and the Paris of Surrealist Revolution (1993), as well as co-edited collections, most recently The Aesthetics of the Undersea (2019) with Killian Quigley, and a Norton critical edition of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary (2004). Professor Cohen has been awarded fellowships from the Fulbright Commission, the ACLS, NYU’s International Center for Advanced Studies, the NEH, the John Carter Brown Library’s Alexander O. Vietor Memorial Fund, the Stanford Humanities Center, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Current projects include a book on the history of underwater film and editingThe Age of Empire for the six-volume A Cultural History of the Sea (Bloomsbury), for which she is general editor as well.

Affiliated faculty at The Europe Center
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Aron Rodrigue

Bldg 200 Rm 238
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-204

(650) 723-1585 (650) 725-0597
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Daniel E. Koshland Professor of Jewish Culture and History
Professor of History
Burke Family Director of the Bing Overseas Studies Program
John Henry Samter Fellow in Undergraduate Education
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Aron Rodrigue is a Professor of History and the Daniel E. Koshland Professor of Jewish Culture and History. He also serves as Burke Family Director of the Bing Overseas Studies Program and is the author of several books on Jewish and Ottoman History.

Affiliated faculty at The Europe Center
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European Forum 2005-06 Year Update

Authors
Christophe Crombez
News Type
News
Date
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The European Forum at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University had an eventful and exciting 2005-06 academic year. We organized almost thirty seminars, workshops and other events on cultural, economic and political issues affecting Europe, its relations with the United States and its role in the world.

We hosted several prominent politicians and diplomats during the academic year. In October John Bruton, European Union Ambassador to the United States and former Prime Minister of Ireland (1994-97), presented his views on Europe and the United States as global partners. Earlier during the Fall we were honored to welcome Latvian Foreign Affairs Minister Artis Pabriks. He gave a lecture on Latvia's current challenges in foreign policy and homeland security.

During the Winter term Estonian President Arnold Rüütel visited Stanford. In his talk he addressed such issues as Estonia's relations with the United States, the European Union and Russia. Andras Simonyi, Hungarian Ambassador to the United States, also visited the European Forum. He presented a fascinating lecture on the political and economic situation in Hungary two years into its EU membership. Three more diplomats gave talks during the Winter Quarter. Kurt Volker, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, spoke about the United States, Europe and the broader Middle East. Dominic Martin, Counsellor at the British Embassy in Washington, talked about the United Kingdom and its current challenges and opportunities in world politics. Richard Morningstar, former United States Ambassador to the European Union, Lecturer at the Stanford Law School and European Forum Research Affiliate, presented his insights into the cooperation between the United States and the European Union in counter-terrorism. This last seminar was part of a series of events the European Forum organized on the manners in which European countries and institutions are dealing with the threat of terrorism, following the attacks in Madrid and London.

The War on Terror was also among the issues addressed by Joschka Fischer, former German Foreign Minister (1998-2005). He visited the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies in April and gave a 2006 Frank E. and Arthur W. Payne Distinguished Lecture for a standing room only crowd at the Bechtel Conference Center at Encina Hall. He talked about Europe's prospects in a globalized world and the future of transatlantic relations. British Ambassador Sir David Manning gave an equally well-attended and equally impressive 2006 Frank E. and Arthur W. Payne Distinguished Lecture on energy as a burning issue in foreign policy.

Other events organized on the topic of counter-terrorism included a round-table discussion on anti-terrorism finance, by Jacob Shapiro, Laura Donohue and Khalid Medani, all affiliated to Stanford University, and a lecture on the French experience of counter-terrorism by Jeremy Shapiro from the Brookings Institution. The series of events culminated with a lecture and a seminar by prolific author and columnist Christopher Hitchens. During a visit to the European Forum in May he presented his fascinating and thought-provoking views on the war on terror, and the situation in Iraq and Iran. The series of events on terrorism is to continue during the next academic year and will culminate with a Thinking Terrorism conference in late 2007.

Furthermore, we organized a number of events on other political issues. German sociologist Heinz Bude, from the University of Kassel, presented his views on the most recent German elections from a broad, societal and historical perspective, paying attention to the 1968 student uprisings and their long-term impact on German society. Christian Deubner, from the CEPII research center in Paris, shared his opinions on current developments in French politics, with a focus on the French rejection of the EU Constitution earlier this year and its impact on France's position in the EU. German author Peter Schneider offered his reflections on the cultural differences between Europe and the United States. He compared the relationship between the two continents to a marriage that has its ups and downs, but endures. Josef Joffe, Editor of the German newspaper Die Zeit, pointed at cultural, demographic, political and economic reasons to argue that the European Union is not about to become a new superpower.

Ken Kollman, from the University of Michigan, presented a political-economic model of leadership in federations and applied it to the EU. Bert Martens, an economist at the EU Commission in Brussels, presented an analysis of the EU's export of political and economic institutions to its neighboring countries, and the incentives it provides for regime change. Markus Hadler, a sociologist at the University of Graz and visiting professor at the European Forum during the past academic year, offered an appraisal of democracy in Europe.

Simon Hug, from the University of Zürich, presented a political-economic model of the negotiations for an EU constitution. Yaron Deckel, from the European Broadcasting Service, talked about the most recent Israeli Elections. Cas Mudde, from the University of Antwerp, presented a talk on immigration and the success of populist parties in the Low Countries. Piet Jan Slot, from Leiden University, gave a seminar on the EU's plans for an internal market for services.

We also organized a number of seminars dealing with various aspects of World War II and its aftermath. There was a talk on the effects of the Europeanization of the holocaust on the attitudes toward Jews, by Werner Bergmann from the Technische Universität Berlin. Monica Siegel, from California State University, Sacramento, gave a presentation on memory and reconciliation in France and Germany. Richard Evans, from Cambridge University, talked about coercion and consent in Nazi Germany. Wolfgang Eichwede, from the University of Bremen, gave a seminar on the dissident movement and Samizdat culture in Eastern Europe. Holocaust survivor Leopold Engleitner and his biographer Bernhard Rammerstorfer talked about surviving Buchenwald as a Jehova's Witness. Martina Pottek, from Bonn University, gave a presentation about artistic concepts to commemorate the holocaust.

Andreas Dorschel, Professor at the University of Graz, and Visiting Austrian Chair Professor at the European Forum during the past academic year, presented a lecture on Bruckner and the 19th century fates of origin.

As the next academic year draws near, we anticipate many more prominent speakers to visit the European Forum. Included in our schedule is the Europe Now lecture featuring Daniel Cohn-Bendit in November 2006.

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The Services Directive and the Internal Market for Services in the European Union

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Professor Piet Jan Slot is a Professor of European and Economic Law at the University of Leiden. He is also the Director of the Europa Institute and Editor of Common Market Law Review. Professor Slot has held many teaching positions including Visiting Jean Monnet Professor at the Reinische Friedrich Wilhelms University of Bonn, Visiting Professor at Paris II, Pantheon-Assas, and Visiting Professor at Stanford University Law School (2000-2001). He is also a Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies in London. Professor Slot's teaching is focused on the law of the European communities, advanced international competition law, and the legal environment of doing business in the European community. He has been a legal advisor for the U.N. Commission for Southeast Asia and the Pacific on issues pertaining to maritime law, and advisor on maritime legislation for several governments in Southeast Asia.

CISAC Conference Room

Piet Jan Slot Professor of European and Economic Law and Director of the Europa Institute Speaker Leiden University
Seminars

Beginnings: Bruckner and the 19th Century Fates of "Origin" (Vom Beginnen: Bruckner und die Wechselfälle des Ursprungs im 19. Jahrhundert)

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German Studies Colloqium, Co-Sponsored by the Department of German Studies and the European Forum

Professor Dorschel will present the lecture in German and the discussion following the lecture will be in English.

German Studies Library
Building 260, Room 252
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305

Andreas Dorschel Stanford Visiting Professor Speaker
Lectures

Populist Parties and Immigration in the Low Countries

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Cas Mudde is a senior lecturer and vice-chairman of the Department of Political Science at the University of Antwerp. He is also the co-founder and convener of the ECPR Standing Group on Extremism and Democracy. Mr. Mudde is the co-editor of the Routledge Studies in Extremism & Democracy book series, which has covered topics such as terrorism in the United States, extremism and terrorism, freedom of speech, and extreme right activists. His current project is a research monograph entitled Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe. From January through June of 2006, Mr. Mudde has been a Fulbright EU Scholar-in-Residence at the Center for Comparative European Studies and the Department of Political Science of Rutgers University. He is teaching an undergraduate course on "Radical Right Politics in Western Democracies" as well as leading a series of workshops on "Contentious and Extreme politics" for graduate students.

Mr. Mudde received his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Leiden. Prior to joining the University of Antwerp in July 2002, he taught at the Central European University and the University of Edinburgh. Additionally, Mr. Mudde has held visiting positions at New York University, Univerzita Karlova, University Jaume I, and the University of California Santa Barbara.

Encina Basement Conference Room

Cas Mudde Speaker University of Antwerp
Seminars

Old Wounds, Open Archives, and Stumbling Blocks - Artistic Concepts to Commemorate the Holocaust in Germany

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Co-sponsored by the German Studies Department and the German Consulate General, San Francisco

Over the past 25 years, the discussion surrounding the history of National Socialism and the Holocaust has developed into a meaningful topic of discourse in German politics, society and culture. Since the 1990s, there has been talk of a real "remembrance boom", which materialized in a flood of academic literature and autobiographies, television documentaries and feature films, as well as documentation centers, centers for eye witnesses, memorials and monuments. In the year 2005 - 60 years after the end of WWII in Europe - this collective process of commemoration presumably reached a climax: preceded by fifteen years of debate, the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe was inaugurated in Berlin. However, the Memorial is still debated today. The history of its genesis is illustrative of the problematic nature of finding an appropriate form for the commemoration of the Holocaust. Many issues have led to the questioning of the traditional forms and functions of a memorial and the search for alternative strategies of commemoration. Dr. Pottek will introduce examples of contemporary commemorative art in order to demonstrate the breadth of artistic strategies for remembrance in Germany and to inspire a discussion about appropriate and less appropriate forms of commemorative art.

Dr. Marina Pottek studied history of art, German literature and Romanic literature at the University of Bochum and received her Ph.D. from the University of Bonn. Her main topics are modern European and American art, contemporary art, art and memory, conceptual art, and narrative art. Since 1998, Dr. Pottek has held a scientific assignment at the University of Bonn and has worked at the equal opportunity office (public relations manager, curator of an interdisciplinary exhibition on female scientists, coordinator for the mentoring programme for talented female scientists at the University of Bonn).

Encina Basement Conference Room

Dr. Martina Pottek Speaker Bonn University
Seminars

Surviving Buchenwald: The Story of a Jehovah's Witness

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Co-Sponsored by the Austrian Consulate General, Los Angeles

Leopold Engleitner of Austria is one of the oldest living Holocaust survivors. Born in 1905 in Salzburg, Mr. Engleitner became a Jehovah's Witness in his late twenties. In 1938 when the Anshluss (the inclusion of Austria into "Greater Germany" by the Nazi regime) occurred in Austria, Mr. Engleitner found himself imprisoned a number of times for what the Nazis claimed was a promotion of an unacceptable religious faction. Rather than being released from prison he was placed into Nazi "protective custody" and sent to a concentration camp. Mr. Engleitner spent the next five years in three different concentration camps. He was subjected to severe physical labor and demeaning treatment from both the Schutzstaffel (the Nazi defense squadron) and fellow prisoners. Throughout his internment, Mr. Engleitner was offered freedom in return for signing a declaration renouncing his beliefs. Time and time again, he refused. Finally, in June 1943, he was offered his freedom in exchange for working solely in agriculture for the remainder of his life. On July 15, 1943, he was released from the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Bernhard Rammerstorfer, also of Austria, is an author and film producer. Mr. Rammerstorfer met Leopold Engleitner in 1994 and consequently wrote his biography, Unbroken Will: The Extraordinary Courage of an Ordinary Man. Mr. Rammerstorfer also produced an accompanying film documentary. In 2006, he produced another documentary entitled, "Unbroken Will Captivates the United States".

In recent years, Mr. Rammerstorfer and Mr. Engleitner have traveled the world, holding lectures at various universities, schools and memorial sites in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and the United States. In 2004, they made presentations at Columbia University, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Kresge Auditorium
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305

Leopold Engleitner Holocaust survivor Speaker
Bernhard Rammerstorfer Biographer and Documentarian Speaker
Seminars
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