Stanford University

Steven Zipperstein

Department of History
Building 200, Room 11
Stanford, CA 94305-2024

(650) 725-5560 (650) 725-0597
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Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History
Professor of History
Zipperstein_Web.jpg PhD

Steven J. Zipperstein is the Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford University. He has also taught at universities in Russia, Poland, France, and Israel; for six years he taught Jewish history at Oxford University. From 1991-2007, he was Director of the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford. Zipperstein is the author and editor of nine books including The Jews of Odessa: A Cultural History (1986, winner of the Smilen Prize for the Outstanding book in Jewish history); Elusive Prophet: Ahad Ha’am and the Origins of Zionism (1993, winner of the National Jewish Book Award); Imagining Russian Jewry (1999); and Rosenfeld’s Lives: Fame, Oblivion, and the Furies of Writing (2008, shortlisted for the National Jewish Book Award in Biography, Autobiography and Memoir).  His work has been translated into Russian, Hebrew, and French. Zipperstein’s latest book, Pogrom:  Kishinev and the Tilt of History, published by Liveright/W. W. Norton in 2018, has been widely reviewed in newspapers and magazines in the United States and England including The New York Times, New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The New Statesman, Literary Review, and the San Francisco Chronicle. The Economist, Ha-Aretz, San Francisco Chronicle and Mosaic Magazine have named it one of the best books of the year.  It was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award (History) and Mark Lynton award for the best non-fiction book of 2018. 

He has been awarded the Leviant Prize of the Modern Language Association, the Judah Magnes Gold Medal of the American Friends of the Hebrew University, and the Koret Prize for Outstanding Contributions to the American Jewish community.  He has held fellowships at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Yitzhak Rabin Institute in Tel Aviv, and has twice been a Visiting Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sciences Sociales.  In spring 2014, he was the first Jacob Kronhill Scholar at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, in New York. At Stanford, and earlier at Oxford and UCLA, he has supervised the dissertation work of more than thirty students now teaching at universities and colleges in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere.  He has delivered keynote addresses and endowed lectures at several dozen universities in the United States and abroad including the Hebrew University, Jerusalem; Central European University, Budapest; Emory; UCLA; University of Wisconsin, Madison; Vanderbilt, and the National Yiddish Book Center. 

Zipperstein’s articles have appeared in The New York Times Sunday Book Review, the Washington Post, The New Republic, the Jewish Review of Books, Chronicle of Higher Education and in many scholarly journals.  He was an editor of Jewish Social Studies for twenty years, and the book series Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture for a quarter of a century.  He is immediate past Chair of the Academic Council of the Center for Jewish History, in New York. Together with Anita Shapira, he is series editor of the Yale University Press/Leon Black Foundation Jewish Lives volumes that were named in 2015 the best books of the year by the National Jewish Book Council -- the first time a book series has won this prize. Some forty-five Jewish Lives books have already appeared, and Zipperstein is currently at work on a biography of Philip Roth for the series.  He and his wife Susan Berrin live in Berkeley.  

Affiliated faculty at The Europe Center

Hungary, the EU, and the U.S.

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As Hungary took over the EU  presidency, the EU member states watch the crisis in the Middle East unfold with great concern.  H.E. Dr. Gyorgy Szapary, the newly appointed Hungarian Ambassador to WDC, will discuss the political, economic, security and social implications for Hungary and the Europe of the last weeks events.

An economist by training, Dr. Szapary spent several years at the IMF in WDC, and is in a unique position to discuss the current events and their potential effects.

Jointly sponsored by The Europe Center at FSI, and the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.

Philippines Conference Room

H.E. Mr. György Szapáry Ambassador of the Republic of Hungary to the United States Speaker
Seminars

Gender Relations in Transition: Austria and Europe in Comparative Perspective

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This seminar will sketch the transition of Austria's gender relations between the 1960s and the firts decade of the 20th century. Departing from a "(Strong) Male Breadwinner/ Female Home Carer Model," the gender relations in Austria have changed significantly, yet Austria has not adopted a more egalitarien system such as the "Dual Breadwinner/ Marketized Female Carer Model" established in the USA, or the "Dual Breadwinner/ State Carer Model" established in Scandinavian Countries. Instead, Austria has (like Germany and the Netherlands) converted into a "(Weak) Male Breadwinner/ Female Parttime Carer Model".

The seminar will track the significant changes of gender relations - the "emancipatory" processes of rising female partipation in education and wage labor, and the loosening of ties of traditional marriage and family, but also the processes of reproduction of gender inequality in education, work and family. Finally, the seminar will address how social, family and gender policies have contributed to these contradictory developments.

Professor Max Preglau (Sociology, University of Innsbruck) is the 2010-11 Visiting Austrian Chair at The Europe Center.

Reuben W. Hills Conference Room

Max Preglau

The Europe Center
Encina Hall E103
616 Serra Street
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 724-8020 (650) 725-2592
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Professor of Sociology at University of Innsbruck, Austria
Distinguished Austrian Visiting Chair Professor, 2011
max_preglau.jpg PhD

Max Preglau is a professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology, School of Political Science and Sociology of the University of Innsbruck in Austria. His work focuses on Critical Social Theory and on the comparative Study of Contemporary Societies, Social Inequalities, Welfare Regimes and Social Policies (Austria and EU-Memberstates).

In 2006-07 Preglau was a Joseph Schumpeter Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University. Until 1991 he was associate professor, until 1986 assistant professor at the Department of Sociology at the School of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Preglau received his doctoral degree in the Social and Economic Sciences from the Vienna Business School, a post-graduate Diploma in Sociology from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna and his qualification for university teaching (Habilitation) of Sociology from the University of Innsbruck.

Professor Preglau's current research projects include "Comparative Analysis of Social Structures: Austria, Europe and the USA," and "Comparative Analysis of Welfare States and Social Policies: Austria, Europe and the USA."

Courses:
SOC 252: Current Social Change: Austria, Europe and the US
Term: Winter, 3-5 units
Tue/Thur 3:15 - 5:05 PM, 160-127

SOC 253: Rise, Current Challenges and Transformations of the Welfare State
Term: Spring, 3-5 units
Tue/Thur: 3:15 - 5:05 PM, 160-127

Max Preglau Speaker
Seminars

The NATO-EU-Russia Triangle: Different Perceptions and Approaches to International Security

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About the speaker:

Dr. Franz Cede is a retired Austrian diplomat who served as the Austrian Ambassador to Russia (1999-2003) and to NATO (2003-2007). He also was the Legal Advisor to the Austrian Foreign Ministry. He has a strong California connection dating back to the time when he was the Austrian Consul General in Los Angeles 20 years ago. Dr Cede holds the degree "Doctor of Law" from Innsbruck University. He received an M.A. in international affairs from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C., and is currently an associate professor at the Andrassy University in Budapest, Hungary. Dr. Cede has published several books and articles in the field of international relations, international law and diplomacy.

Jointly sponsored by The Europe Center at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.

 

Audio Synopsis:

In this talk, Dr. Cede details his views on Russia's evolving relationships with the EU, NATO, and the US, drawing on his experiences as Austrian ambassador to the Soviet Union from1999 to 2003. Cede first outlines his perceptions of present-day Russia-US and Russia-NATO relations. Russia, he explains, still thinks in Cold War terms of bilateral relations and considers the United States to be its primary strategic partner on global security issues, especially in light of the Obama administration's recent "reset" of relations and ratification of the new START treaty. In contrast, Russia views NATO as outdated and yet still a threat. Its expansion to the East is viewed with suspicion by Putin's administration, which considers these developments to be distinctly anti-Russian. Russia engages with NATO only to the extent that it believes it can influence the organization's behavior and policies toward Moscow.  Still, in Cede's experience, the NATO-US-Russia triangle continues to be at the forefront of Russian policymakers' dialogue. Russian leaders prefer to avoid dealing with the EU because it lacks a coherent foreign policy, and also because Russia prefers bilateral relations with countries that offer a strategic benefit. Dr. Cede quotes Timothy Garton Ash, who wrote in a recent op-ed that "much of the Russian foreign policy elite treats the European Union as a kind of transient, post-modern late 20th century anachronism: flawed in principle, and feeble in practice. What matters in the 21st century, as much as it did in the 19th century, is the...determination of great powers." Dr. Cede cites the Georgian military intervention and recent Ukrainian gas crisis as examples of Russia's renewed attempts to reestablish dominance in its neighborhood.  

In the second portion of his talk Dr. Cede traces the evolution of Russian views of the EU and NATO.  Ten years ago, the EU-Russia relationship was largely ignored in the Russian media. When Cede asked Russian citizens for their views on the EU, they "either didn't know or didn't care." As Ambassador, Dr. Cede found Russian officials better informed, but  disdainful of being given orders by EU donors and "treated like a developing country." Cede illustrates this dynamic by recounting the 2004 incident in which the EU forced the residents of Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast region to apply for EU Shengen visas, which then required special permits to travel throughout Russia.  Western assurances that EU expansion to the east was not an attack on Russia but rather an attempt to extend stability to the Eastern bloc fell on deaf ears. Cede believes that notwithstanding Russia's attitude, the country is too big to ever join the EU, or to be influenced by Europe in its policy decisions. Because Russia still views itself as "one of the poles in a multipolar world," Dr. Cede insists that any change must come from within the country. However, Cede views Russia's candidacy to the WTO, which would require a clearer commitment to democracy and open economic policies, as a glimmer of hope.

Finally, Dr. Cede outlines several "permanent" features of Russia's relationship with the world, including economic interdependence, lack of cooperation on security policy, and weak relations with stateless organizations like the EU and NATO. He lays out several recommendations, which are elaborated on during the Q&A session:

  1. EU policymakers and other Western powers (notably the US) should strengthen their common Russia policy. Given the EU's dependence on Russia for oil and gas, it should also diversify its own energy sources to strengthen its bargaining position.
  2. The EU should consider membership for "bridge countries" such as Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus.
  3. Personal diplomacy between universities, civil society, and citizens is important.  This includes reevaluation of visa policy. Cede hopes that the advent of the internet will also help improve attitudes between Russia and the rest of the world.

Reuben W. Hills Conference Room

Franz Cede Former Austrian Ambassador to Russia Speaker
Seminars

Social Banking and Social Finance: Answers to the Economic Crisis

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For over 2,000 years, banks have served to facilitate the exchange of money and to provide a variety of economic and financial services. During the most recent financial collapse and subsequent recession, beginning in 2008, banks have been vilified as perpetrators of the crisis, the public distrust compounded by massive public bailouts. Nevertheless, another form of banking has also emerged, with a focus on promoting economic sustainability, investing in community, providing opportunity for the disadvantaged, and supporting social, environmental, and ethical agendas. Social Banking and Social Finance traces the emergence of the “bank with a conscience” and proposes a new approach to banking in the wake of the economic crisis. Featuring innovations and initiatives in banking from Europe, Canada, and the United States, Roland Benedikter presents an alternative to traditional banking practices that are focused exclusively on profit maximization. He argues that social banking is not about changing the system, but about improving some of its core features by putting into use the "triple bottom line" principle of profit-people-planet. Important lessons can be learned by the success of social banks that may be useful for the greater task of improving the global financial system and avoiding economic crises in the future.

 

 

Critical Acclaim for This Publication

 “This volume provides a description of social banking and social finance, their background in the history of ideas and their importance within the current globalized economy. It is not only an excellent didactical introduction, but also an entertaining and at the same time scientifically sound and differentiated explanation, which to my knowledge is so far unparalleled in English-speaking academia. I believe that the insights of this volume can have a progressive impact on the thinking about money and finance of the new generations, as well as the broader public in theUnited States and inEurope. I therefore consider this volume to be one step (among the many necessary) toward a realistic and sober rethinking of capitalism. Even if it is just a brief text and thus a small step, it is an important one. Because, as German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, every long voyage starts with a brief first step. And this step, as compressed, simple and surprising as it may sometimes seem, may prove to be inspiring for those which come afterwards. I think that Benedikter’s volume is a valid response to the profound challenges arisen with the economic and financial crisis of 2007–2010. The solutions and perspectives it proposes are useful tools to help us to avoid further crises.”

-Professor Dr. Hans Christoph Binswanger, Chair Emeritus of National Economics, University St. Gallen, Switzerland, and former director of the Swiss Research Association on National Economics, Zürich 

 

“The recent crisis has shown that the time for more differentiated and just approaches to money and finance is ripe. I hope that with this outstanding didactical introduction oriented not primarily toward specialists, but to students and teachers, as well as to the broad public, the discussion about how we can move forward in making better use of money and finance will gain further momentum. This volume is an important contribution to broadening the financial literacy of our time.”

-Professor Dr. Udo Reifner, Department for Economics and Social Science, Hamburg University

 

“This is a clear and intense text. It has the advantage of summoning up some of the most important questions of current economics and finance in a short, easily  understandable and well-structured way. The reader is on the one hand provided insight into the main issues of today’s debate about the future of capitalism. On the other hand, she and he are informed about the ongoing (r)evolution in the banking and finance sector. The present change goes beyond the traditional reductionisms of the mainstream banking and finance sector. It starts to demonstrate how the creation of economic value on the one hand and a sustainable social and environmental development on the other hand can be integrated into one and the same approach. The international educational sector has to be grateful for this volume.”

-Professor Dr. Leonardo Becchetti, Department of Economics, Università Roma II “Tor Vergata, ”Italy 

 

“One of the first soundly scientific publications of its kind in English, this volume provides a complete overview over the contemporary field of social banking and social finance. Written in a short and easily understandable manner, it explains the history, the philosophy, the current state, and the perspectives of social banking and social finance in theUnited Statesand inEurope. This volume is an indispensable first entry for everybody who wants to know how we can deal with money in a better, sustainable way.” 

-Professor Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, dean emeritus, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California at Santa Barbara, former policy director of the United Nations, Centre for Science and Technology for Development New York City, member of the Club of Rome, ordinary commissioner of the World Commission on the Social Dimensions of Globalization  

 

“Without need of prior knowledge, this volume is the ideal introduction to social banking and social finance for students and teachers. As a result of the economic crisis of 2007–2010, the request for a better handling of money and finance has increased on a global level. Social banking and social finance are answers that while not everybody must agree with them, they are worth to be known by everybody who wants to join the discussion on a well founded basis.”

-Professor Hanns-Fred Rathenow, director of the Institute of Social Sciences and Education in History and Politics, head of the Center for Global Education and International Cooperation, The Technical University of Berlin

 

“Social banking is a field of civil society engagement that has surfaced to international attention during the most recent financial crisis. This volume is an excellent introduction from a contemporary viewpoint. It departs from outlining the main traits of the economic crisis of 2007–2010, but its insights and teachings are not limited to it. This volume uses the crisis just as a starting point to explain how the financial system can move forward toward a more rational constellation of balance and inclusion. It is as unique as it is valuable.”

-Professor Dr. James Giordano, The Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, Oxford University, director of Academic Programs of The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies Arlington, Virginia

 

“I appreciate particularly the interdisciplinary and multilayered approach of this volume. It is one of the first English publications that transcends the limits of reducing social banking and social finance to ‘developmental aid’ for the so-called ‘developing world,’ or to simply identify it with approaches like ‘helping the poor’, like it has been done too often in the past. Instead, as this volume shows, social banking and social finance are more: They are about rationally and soberly innovating the system of capitalism, but without revolutionizing it. That is because social banks consider capitalism as a basic social good of modernity, that in the aftermath of the crisis has to be transformed into a ‘better’ capitalism which serves the greater society instead of benefiting just a few. The whole argumentation of this volume is about creating a broader range of options for the average bank customer in theUnited Statesand Europeand to make the use of capital more ‘humane,’ by serving the specific needs of the ‘real economy’ instead of abstract speculation. This volume, although short and concise, gives a quite realistic picture of the situation and its perspectives. The author finds the right balance between simplification, precision, and vision.”

-Professor Dr. Michael Opielka, Department of Social Welfare and Social Politics, The University of Applied Sciences Jena, Germany

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Grants available for study and research in Austria

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Students and researchers who are interested in a stay in Austria will find a wide variety of scholarships and grants with the Austrian Agency for International Mobility and Cooperating in Education, Science and Research (OeAD). Programs range from broader geographical – and theme- oriented scholarships like the Ernst Mach programme, to more specific programs for individual fields of study (Franz Werfel for students of German language and literature; Richard Plaschka for historians), also including programs with a regional focus. These programs are designed for a worldwide application, except the Ernst Mach Grant for Austrian Universities of Applied Sciences, which is only aimed at non-European countries. All three programmes are funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Research (BMWF).

To access information on grant programs and scholarship opportunities, please consult the OeAD's online database: www.grants.at.

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European Substate Nationalisms and the Discourses of Sovereignty within the EU

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Since October 2007, Professor Núñez-Seixas has been head of the Department of Modern and America's History at the University of Santiago de Compostela. He has been a fellow and visiting professor at numerous European universities, most recently at the Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung in Potsdam, Germany in 2005.

His main fields of research are Spanish migration to Latin America in the 19th and 20th centuries; European nationalist movements in comparative perspective; Galician, Basque and Catalan nationalisms; the nationality question in interwar Europe; and Spanish nationalism in the 20th century.

His current book project, forthcoming in January 2012 from Oxford University Press, is titled "Decentring Dictatorships: The regional in Franco's Spain and Hitler's Germany."

Professor Núñez-Seixas holds a Ph.D. in Modern History from the European University Institute, Florence.

CISAC Conference Room

Xosé Manoel Núñez-Seixas Professor, Department of Modern and America's History, University of Santiago de Compostela Speaker
Seminars

Max Preglau

The Europe Center
Encina Hall E103
616 Serra Street
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 724-8020 (650) 725-2592
0
Professor of Sociology at University of Innsbruck, Austria
Distinguished Austrian Visiting Chair Professor, 2011
max_preglau.jpg PhD

Max Preglau is a professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology, School of Political Science and Sociology of the University of Innsbruck in Austria. His work focuses on Critical Social Theory and on the comparative Study of Contemporary Societies, Social Inequalities, Welfare Regimes and Social Policies (Austria and EU-Memberstates).

In 2006-07 Preglau was a Joseph Schumpeter Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University. Until 1991 he was associate professor, until 1986 assistant professor at the Department of Sociology at the School of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Preglau received his doctoral degree in the Social and Economic Sciences from the Vienna Business School, a post-graduate Diploma in Sociology from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna and his qualification for university teaching (Habilitation) of Sociology from the University of Innsbruck.

Professor Preglau's current research projects include "Comparative Analysis of Social Structures: Austria, Europe and the USA," and "Comparative Analysis of Welfare States and Social Policies: Austria, Europe and the USA."

Courses:
SOC 252: Current Social Change: Austria, Europe and the US
Term: Winter, 3-5 units
Tue/Thur 3:15 - 5:05 PM, 160-127

SOC 253: Rise, Current Challenges and Transformations of the Welfare State
Term: Spring, 3-5 units
Tue/Thur: 3:15 - 5:05 PM, 160-127

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