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Center for the Study of Nationalism

Center for the Study of Nationalism

Nationalism is a pervasive force in culture and politics in the 21st century. It shapes our understanding of essential social categories like national identity that bear implications for citizenship and immigration. It frames debates on economic policy with consequences for inequality and development. It identifies enemies and rationalizes armed conflict in the name of the nation and complicates the negotiation of peace.  Nationalism may attract headlines and infuse large-scale political campaigns, but it is equally experienced in a myriad of individual, everyday practices that create and re-create national boundaries.

The Center for the Study of Nationalism (CSN) engages OU faculty and students in the empirical and theoretical aspects of studying nationalism and related cultural and political issues, including: cultural authenticity and reinvention; self-determination and secession; ethnic conflict and civil war; immigration and citizenship; globalization, development, and inequality; minority rights, accommodation and nation-building. Recognizing that the study of nationalism transcends academic disciplines and crosses the boundaries of traditional area studies, CSN bridges across departments and centers on campus to provide a forum for advancing knowledge and research production about nationalism and related cultural and political phenomena.


News & Media

On April 3, 2023, the Center for the Study of Nationalism and the Schusterman Center for Judaic and Israel Studies presented "Kreisky, Israel and Jewish Identity," a talk with Daniel Aschheim, Deputy Consul General of Israel to the Midwest. Moderator was Dr. Carsten Schapkow, L.R. Brammer, Jr. Presidential Associate Professor in History and Director of the Center for the Study of Nationalism.

The panel “Bearing Witness: Three Views from Berlin” organized by OU’s Schusterman Center for Judaic and Israel Studies on September 14, 2022 brought together Professors Alan Levenson, Hadas Cohen, Karlos Hill, and Carsten Schapkow. All of them had lived in Berlin for some time. The panel discussion highlighted how these three scholars, an Israeli, an American and a German, perceive Berlin as a place of Jewish history and the Holocaust. And moreover, how knowledge of these histories and the memory of both events can be used for us today to better understand and combat current socio-political phenomena, such as the increase of both racism and anti-Semitism in Germany and the United States.

The Long Path to Democracy in Germany: Ernst Troeltsch and the First World War

Jewish Studies and Israeli Studies in the 21st Century: Intersections and Prospects

Dr. Carsten Schapkow discusses the background and creation of his 2019 edited volume.

Recent Publications of the Center

Nationalism and Populism book cover, forthcoming in 2022

Frank Jacob and Carsten Schapkow (eds.), Nationalism in a Transnational Age: Irrational Fears and the Strategic Abuse of Nationalist Pride (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2021) Downloadable PDF of Nationalism Article

Carsten Schapkow and Frank Jacob (eds.), Nationalism and Populism: Expressions of Fear or Political Strategies? (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2022)


People

Carsten Schapkow

Director

Carsten Schapkow, PhD
L.R. Brammer, Jr. Presidential Associate Professor in History,
Department of History and Schusterman Center for Judaic and Israel Studies
Dale Hall Tower 316
cschapkow@ou.edu


James Cane-Carrasco


James Cane-Carrasco, PhD
Associate Professor, History
Dale Hall Tower 317
cane@ou.edu

Misha Klein


Misha Klein, PhD
Associate Professor, 
Anthropology
Dale Hall Tower 505B
misha@ou.edu

Afshin Marashi


Afshin Marashi, PhD
Professor, Middle Eastern History,
Department of International and Area Studies
Farzaneh Family Chair, Iranian Studies
Farzaneh Hall 326
(405) 325-6671
amarashi@ou.edu

Karin Schutjer


Karin Schutjer, PhD
Professor, German Studies
Department of Modern Languages
Kaufman Hall 208
(405) 325-1907
kschutjer@ou.edu


Past Publications, Courses & Events

Afshin Marashi, Exile and the Nation: The Parsi Community of India and the Making of Modern Iran (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2020)

Sandie Holguin, Flamenco Nation: The Construction of Spanish National Identity (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press 2019)

Carsten Schapkow and Klaus Hoedl (eds.), Jewish Studies and Israel Studies in the 21st Century: Intersections and Prospects (Lanham: Lexington Books 2019)

Misha Klein, Kosher Feijoada and Other Paradoxes of Jewish Life in Sao Paulo (University Press of Florida, 2012, 2nd edition 2016)

Carsten Schapkow, Role Model and Countermodel. The Golden Age of Iberian Jewry and German-Jewish Culture During the Era of Emancipation (Lanham: Lexington Books 2016)

Karin Schutjer, Goethe and Judaism. The Troubled Inheritance of Modern Literature (Evanston: Northwestern University Press 2015)

Afshin Marashi and Kamran Aghaie (eds.), Rethinking Iranian Nationalism and Modernity (University of Texas Press, 2014)

James Cane, The Fourth Enemy. Journalism and Power in the Making of Peronist Argentina, 1930-1955 (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press 2011)

Afshin Marashi, Nationalizing Iran: Culture, Power, and the State, 1870-1940 (University of Washington Press, 2008)

 

Courses

Latin America:

  • Brazil Beyond Black and White (ANTH 4853/5970)
  • Modern Brazil (IAS 3353)
  • Latin America in the Age of Cuban Revolution (HIST 4543)
  • Intellectuals and Artists in Modern Latin America (HIST/IAS 4513-001)
  • The Latin American Left, 1900-present (HIST/IAS 4523-001)
  • Populism in 20th-Century South America (HIST/IAS 4533-001)
  • Latin American Independence, 1750-1880 (HIST 3843)
  • Culture and Identity in Latin America (HIST 6300)

Middle East:

  • The Modern Middle East (HIST 3953)
  • Rebirth of Israel (HIST 3963)
  • Modern Iran: 1500-Present (IAS 3223)
  • Nationalism & the Middle East (IAS 3223)
  • The Middle East Since WWI (IAS 3203)
  • Political Islam (IAS 3443)
  • The Arab-Israeli Conflict (IAS 3473)
  • Iran Since 1979: Politics (IAS 3493)
  • Politics of the Middle East (PSC 3663)

Europe and Russia:

  • Transformation of the Jews (HIST 3232)
  • Jews and Nationalism in Eastern Europe (HIST 3770)
  • Imperial Russia (HIST 3793)
  • Jews and other Germans (HIST 4003)
  • From Bismarck to Hitler (HIST 3253)
  • Nazi German Culture (HIST 3120)
  • The Holocaust (HIST 2123)
  • History and Memory of the Holocaust (HIST 4973)
  • Diasporas and Minorities in Europe (HIST 3573/HIST 6200)
  • Nations and Nation-States in Europe (HIST 4973)
  • Nations and Nationalism (HIST 6200)
  • Modern Spain (HIST 3233)
  • Ethnic Politics (PSC 3970)
  • Cold War Science (HSCI 3463)

Asia and Africa:

  • Late Imperial China (HIST 3883)
  • Japan Since 1850 (HIST 3853)
  • Remembering the Asia Pacific War (HIST 4973-002)
  • Africa Since 1945 (HIST 3723)
  • Religion and Nationalism in India (RELS 3223)

Past Events