People

CEMS Faculty

K. E. Fleming holds a doctorate in history from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.A. (Chicago) and B.A. (Barnard/Columbia) in comparative religion. On the history faculty, Fleming has directed NYU's Center for European and Mediterranean Studies and the A.S. Onassis Program in Hellenic Studies, as well as serving as Associate Director of the Remarque Institute. A specialist on modern Greece, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean, Fleming's work ranges from the 15th century to the present and includes articles on such disparate interests as the fall of Constantinople (1453); 19th-century Balkan rabbinics; and post-Saidian approaches to the study of Europe. She is the author or editor of three books, most recently Greece: a Jewish History (2007, Princeton University Press).

Tamsin Shaw joined the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies and the department of Philosophy in July 2009 as an Associate Professor. She received both her B.A. and Ph.D. from Cambridge University. She was formerly an Assistant Professor of Political Theory in the Politics Department at Princeton University, where she held the Lawrence S. Rockefeller University Preceptorship. She has also previously been a Junior Research Fellow at King's College, Cambridge, and a member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.  She is interested in political skepticism and in the implications of secularization and moral skepticism for political thought. Her book, Nietzsche's Political Skepticism, was published by Princeton University Press in August 2007. It examines Nietzsche's distinctive form of skepticism about political legitimacy. She has also published on Max Weber and is currently working on a monograph that explores critically his pessimistic account of secularization.

Larry Wolff is professor of history at New York University.  He is the author of Venice and the Slavs: The Discovery of Dalmatia in the Age of Enlightenment (2001), Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment (1994), The Vatican and Poland in the Age of the Partitions: Diplomatic and Cultural Encounters at the Warsaw Nunciature (1988), and Postcards from the End of the World: Child Abuse in Freud's Vienna (1988).  Most recently, he published the edited volume The Anthropology of the Enlightenment (2007), and his current research concerns Galicia.  Wolff is an elected member of the Council of the American Historical Association and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Modern History.  He has received Fulbright, American Council of Learned Societies, and Guggenheim fellowships, and in 2003 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Visiting Faculty

Sylvia Maier joined the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies in September 2007 as Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow.  She earned her B.A. in Political Science at the University of Vienna, Austria, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Southern California.  Previously, she was an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Dr. Maier's research focuses on gender and multiculturalism, honor killings, the legal accommodation of Muslim minority rights in Western Europe, and the role of ICTs in women's empowerment in the Global South. She is the author of "Honor Killings and the Cultural Defense in Germany," "Shared Values: Democracy and Human Rights in the European Neighborhood Policy" (with Frank Schimmelfennig), "Women and Internet Use in Five South Indian Villages: Obstacles and Opportunities" (with Michael Best), and "Empowering Women Through ICT-Based Business Initiatives: An Overview of Best Practices in E-Commerce/E-Retail Projects" (with Usha Nair).  She has also authored several shorter pieces and reviews.  Dr. Maier is currently completing a book manuscript on Mainstreaming Muslims: Islam, Culture and the Law in France and Germany. 

Michael Minkenberg is the 2007-10 Max Weber Chair for German and European Studies at NYU.  He holds the Chair of Comparative Politics at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and received his M.A. in American Government from Georgetown University in 1984 and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Heidelberg in 1989.  He has taught comparative politics at the universities of Göttingen and Heidelberg, at Cornell University and Columbia University.  Professor Minkenberg's research interests include the radical right in liberal democracies; immigration, nationalism and the politics of citizenship; and the relationship between religion and politics in Western societies.  Among his book publications are The American Impasse, edited with H. Dittgen (1996); Die neue radikale Rechte im Vergleich. USA, Frankreich, Deutschland (1998); Politik und Religion. PVS Special Issue 33/2002, edited with U. Willems; and The Radical Right in Europe: An Overview (2008). His articles have appeared in various peer-reviewed journals such as Comparative Politics, West European Politics, Comparative Political Studies, the European Journal of Political Research, Comparative Political Studies, Politics and Religion, and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

Lidia Santarelli joined the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies in January 2008 as Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow.  She earned her Laurea in Arts and Humanities from the Universitá degli Studi "La Sapienza" - Roma 1 and her Ph.D. in History and Civilization from the European University Institute.  She has held post-doctoral fellowships at Princeton University, Columbia University and the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Washington, D.C.  Dr. Santarelli's research interests focus on Italian fascism, nations and nationalism in the Balkans, and collective memory in post-1945 Europe.  Her forthcoming book, Spazio Vitale. Guerra e occupazione italiana in Grecia 1940-1943 (2007), explores fascist Italy's occupation of Greece.  She has published book chapters and articles in journals, such as the Journal of Modern Italian Studies.  Dr. Santarelli is co-author and historical consultant for Italian Brava Gente. A Film Documentary on Italian War Crimes in African and the Balkans.  She is currently conducting research on the Holocaust in Greece.

Adjunct Faculty