Berezin, Mabel M.

Associate Professor

Berezin's research asks how shared cultural meanings and practices shape 1) political institutions such as the state; 2) social processes around political movements and ideologies; and 3) agents through the construction of political identities. Her methodology is primarily comparative and historical.  Her current work focuses on contemporary sites of social, political and cultural change--places where political arrangements have collapsed and new institutions and identities are in the process of formation.

research

research and scholarship focus

  • Social and Cultural Appeal of Fringe Parties in France and Italy as a Response to Europeanization
  • Comparative Historical Study of Institution Building, Citizenship and Social Capital in Early 20th Century United States and Europe
  • Role of Emotions in Macrosociological Systems (i.e., Politics, Economics) 

international geographic focus

affiliations

faculty appointment in

member of graduate field

other Cornell affiliations

teaching

teaching focus

  • Comparative and Historical Sociology
  • Culture
  • Political Institutions and Ideologies
  • Theory
  • Qualitative Methods
  • Economy and Society
  • Courses
    • Politics and Culture | Soc248/Gov363        
    • Qualitative Methods | Sociology 408/508    
    • Comparative Societal Analysis | Sociology 510/Gov637    
    • Cultural Sociology | Sociology 430/630    
    • Toleration and Fundamentalism: Political Culture, Religion and the State | Soph Seminar Soc 327    

background

educational background

  • Ph.D. 1987 Harvard University

publications

selected publications (listing in progress)

  • [with Juan Diez-Medrano] “Distance Matters: Place, Perception and Popular Support for European Integration”.

  • “The Festival State: Celebration and Commemoration in Fascist Italy.” “Festivals and Totalitarianism” Special Issue of The Journal of Modern European History.

  • “Xenophobia and the New Nationalisms.” In Handbook of Nations and Nationalism, Gerard Delanty and Krishan Kumar, eds. London: Sage Publications.

  • “Fascism.” In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, George Ritzer, ed. Oxford: Blackwell.

  • “Great Expectations: Reflections on Identity and the European Monetary Union”. In The Year of the Euro: The Cultural, Social and Political Import of Europe’s Single Currency, Robert Fishman and Anthony Messina, eds. South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

  • Mabel Berezin, "Reasserting the National: The Paradox of Populism in a Transnational Europe." Prepared for Invited Thematic Panel, "Citizenship and Identity in a Unifying Europe, American Sociological Association Meetings, 2004. Available at Center for the Study of Economy and Society, Working Paper Series, #21, Cornell University Department of Sociology, 2004.

  • Mabel Berezin, "Emotions and the Economy." Center for the Study of Economy and Society Working Paper Series #12, Cornell University Department of Sociology, 2003.

    Books:

  • Under Contract: People Without Peoplehood: Populism and Democracy in a New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • 2003 [with Martin Schain], eds. Europe Without Borders: Re-mapping Territory, Citizenship and Identity in a Transnational Age. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

  • 1997 Making the Fascist Self: The Political Culture of Inter-war Italy. In the "Wilder House Series in Culture, Politics and History". Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Articles:

  • 2005 “Emotions and the Economy.” In Handbook of Economic Sociology, 2nd edition, Neil J. Smelser and Richard Swedberg, eds. New York and Princeton: Russell Sage Foundation and Princeton University Press: 109-127.

  • 2002 “Secure States: Towards a Political Sociology of Emotion”. In “Sociology and Emotions,” Jack Barbalet, ed. Sociological Review Monograph. London: Basil Blackwell: 33-52.

  • 2001 "Emotion and Political Identity: Mobilizing Affection for the Polity." In Passionate Politics: Emotion and Social Movements, James Jasper, Jeff Goodwin, Francesca Polletta, eds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 83-98.

  • 2000 “The Euro is More than Money: Converting Currency, Exchanging Identity, and Selling Citizenship in Post-Maastricht Europe”. Policy Newsletter, Center for Economy and Society University of Michigan Business School, Volume 1, Issue 1, (Spring) (http://www.bus.umich.edu/cse/nsltr_archives.html).

  • 1999 [with Jeffrey C. Alexander] “Theme Issue: Democratic Culture: Ethnos and Demos in Global Perspective”. International Sociology, Volume 14, September

  • 1999 "Political Belonging: Emotion, Nation and Identity in Fascist Italy." In State/Culture, George Steinmetz, ed. Ithaca: Cornell University Press: 355-377.

  • 1997 "Politics and Culture: A Less Fissured Terrain." Annual Review of Sociology 23 (August): 361-83.

  • 1994 "Cultural Form and Political Meaning: State Subsidized Theater, Ideology and the Language of Style in Fascist Italy." American Journal of Sociology 99 (March): 1237-1286