Overview
Mabel Berezin is Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences in Sociology and Director of the Institute for European Studies at Cornell University. She is a comparative sociologist whose work explores challenges to democratic cohesion and solidarity in Europe and the United States. She is author of Making of the Fascist Self: The Political Culture of Interwar Italy, which was awarded the J. Dvid Greenstone Prize by the American Political Science Association and which Choice named and "Outstanding Academic Book of 1997"; Illiberal Politics in Neoliberal Times: Culture, Society and Populism in New Europe; and co-editor with Martin Schain of Europe without Borders: Remapping Territory, Citizenship, and Identity in a Transnational Age. Berezin lectures widely in the United States and Europe. She was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics at Science Po in Paris, a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Uniersity's Minda De Gunzburg Center for European Studies and has held "invited" positions at European University Institute in Fiesole, Italy, Université Paris 8, Centre de recherches internationales (CERI) Sciences-Po, and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sciences Sociales, Paris, France; the Hoover Institution for War and Peace, Stanford. Dutch, Polish and British print media, as well as France 24, NPR, BBC and Australian Broadcasting Company have interviewed her. She writes Op-Ed pieces for Nation, CNN, Global Dialogues, Huffington Post and The Conversation. She has held fellowships from the European University Institute, the Leverhulme Trust, ASA Fund for Advancement of the Discipline and the German Marshall Fund. In academic year 2018-2019, she was a member of the School of Social Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton where she worked on a monograph addressing the global resurgence of nationalism and the populist challenge to democratic practice. The End of Security and the Rise of Populism is currently under contract at Oxford University Press
Recent Courses
SOC 2480/GOVT 3633 Politics and Culture
SOC 4540/GOVT 4543 Fascism, Nationalism and Populism
SOC 6300 Interdisciplinary and Global Approaches to Culture
SOC 5020 Basic Problems in Sociology II
SOC 6840 New Approaches to Qualitative Methods
Research 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)
Awards and Honors
In academic year 2018-2019, Mabel was a member of the School of Social Sciences at the Institute for Advanced study at Princeton.
Publications
Select Publications:
2023 "Does the Fascism Debate Matter for Understanding 2024 American Politics?" The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
2020 “The Absence of the Ordinary in 2020 Presidential Politics: What Politicians Communicate.” Sociological Forum: June 2020, Vol 35, pp. 830-838.
2020 “Culture in Politics and Politics in Culture: Institutions, Practices and Boundaires.” Pp. 102-31 in The New Handbook of Political Sociology, eds. Thomas Janoski, Cedric de Leon, Joya Misra, and Isaac William Martin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Co-authored with Emily Sandusky and Thomas Davidson].
2019 Fascism and Populism: Are They Useful Categories for Comparative Sociological Analysis? Annual Review of Sociology: July 2019, Vol 45, pp. 345-361.
Media:
2024 Elon Musk Endorses Far-Right Party Amidst German Political Turmoil, the Pinnacle Gazette
2021 Political Ineptitude Tempered Trump’s Fascist Behavior, Article in The Nation, Link to PDF here.
2016 “It’s time to admit it: We’re all afraid of terrorism” Comment on attacks in Nice and political emotion published in Salon.
Select Recent talks:
2024 How French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen used populism to fuel his far-right agenda, NPR Here & Now interview
2023 Global Forum Latin America and the Caribbean. Union League Club, New York, NY. "Perspectives Geopolitics and Global Economics." Comparative apanel: Europe (September 21).
2023 Roundtable. The January 6, 2025 Project. American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA. (September 1).
2023 Roundtable. Historical Origins of Democratic Crisis. 29th International Conference of Europeanists, Council of European Studies, Reykjavik, Iceland. (June 28).
Panelist. “The 2020 Election: A Cultural Post-Mortem”
Culture and Contemporary Life Series, hosted by the Sociology of Culture Section of American Sociological Association (December 2020). Click here to watch.
Plenary Session. “The Rise of National Populism in the West: Causes and Consequences.”
Invited Session. Missing Voices, Missing Issues in the 2020 Election, “The Absence of the Ordinary.”
Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA (February 28, 2020)
In the news
- Le Pen conviction could ‘backfire’ on French political establishment
- Cornell expert on Jean-Marie Le Pen: a ‘driving force’ for French far-right
- Cornell experts analyze rhetoric used by both campaigns in final stretch
- Global experts look abroad for lessons in super election year
- Far-Right: The crisis itself or the result?
- Youth vote factoring heavily in French elections
- Populism Expert: Macron miscalculated badly
- Snap elections a ‘political mistake’ for Macron
- New European ‘strongmen’ are women, gender where similarities end
- Panel explores rise of nationalism across the globe
- A.D. White professor addresses threats to democracy
- With McCarthy out, ‘we are slouching towards political chaos’
- A&S honors 23 faculty with endowed professorships
- May Day strikes: French far-right gains ground as working people's party
- Klarman Fellow: How do past events affect political present?
- Fear of election violence highlights how political landscape has changed
- Fascism expert: Italy is next in the European nationalist movement, here is why.
- Despite election loss, Marine Le Pen influence in France to continue
- Surprise, no surprise: round 1 of the French presidential election
- Marine Le Pen to ‘win’ French election, even if she loses
- In shadow of Ukraine war, EU elections face critical moment
- Experts: Ukraine war puts world in ‘uncharted territory’
- What to read in 2022? A&S faculty weigh in
- Einaudi welcomes new program directors and opportunities
- Germany election a ‘spectacular result’ for far-right party
- Biden’s inaugural ‘theater of unity’ offers rebuke to violence
- By playing down illness, Trump engages in 'political theater'
- Cornell experts probe threats to democracy from COVID-19
- Global democratic challenges due to pandemic examined in webinar
- Panel considers role of the press in a time of lies
- European populists don’t need Donald Trump, but they like his support
- Panel reflects on Watergate and ‘Russiagate’
- Faculty weigh in on 'Tyranny' book at community read
- Faculty host community read, discussion: 'On Tyranny'
- Cornellians to share breaking sociology research in Seattle
