Benjamin Lazier
Benjamin Lazier (born August 21, 1971 in Jerusalem ) is an American historian and professor at Reed College , Portland . His main area of expertise is modern European intellectual history on topics such as the environment and globalization , religious and political thought, political economy and the animality of emotions .
academic career
Lazier received his bachelor's degree in 1993 from the University of Virginia with the highest distinction and, after scholarship-funded research stays at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (1993–1994), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1994–1995) and the Free University of Berlin ( 1999), graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a PhD from Martin Jay in 2002 .
From 2002 to 2005 he taught at the University of Chicago . During a year at Stanford University's Humanities Center , he began work on a number of new research projects: one on the history of the concept of the earth, and one on the organisms and artifacts in the intellectual history of the 19th and 20th centuries. He also teaches a number of courses on modern European intellectual history from the Enlightenment to the present.
Writings and editorships (selection)
Books
- God Interrupted: Heresy and the European Imagination Between the World Wars. Princeton University Press, 2008 (awarded as “Best First Book in the History of Religion” by the American Academy of Religion, the Koret Foundation Publication Prize and the Templeton Prize for Theological Promise as “Best First Book” on “God or Spirituality”)
- Fear: Across the Disciplines (co-editor with Jan Plamper), Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012.
Articles and essays
- Writing the Judenzarathustra: Gershom Scholem's Encounter with Modernity, 1913-1917, New German Critique 85 (2002), 33-67.
- Overcoming Gnosticism: Hans Jonas, Hans Blumenberg and the Legitimacy of the Natural World, Journal of the History of Ideas 64 (2003), 619–637. Winner of the Selma V. Forkosch Prize (best article in the Journal of the History of Ideas, 2003)
- Pauline Theology in the Weimar Republic: Hans Jonas, Karl Barth, Martin Heidegger, in Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Christian Wiese, eds., Judaism and the Phenomenon of Life: the Legacy of Hans, Jonas (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2008) , 107-129.
- The Origins of 'Political Theology': Judaism and Heresy Between the Wars, New German Critique 105, 35: 3 (Fall 2008), 143-164.
- Natural Right and Liberalism: Leo Strauss in Our Time, Modern Intellectual History, 6, 1 (2009), 171–188.
- The Phobic Regimes of Modernity (co-author with Jan Plamper), Representations, 110 (Spring 2010), 58-65.
- Earthrise; or, the Globalization of the World Picture, American Historical Review (June, 2011), 602-630.
Awards
- 2003: Selma V. Forkosch Prize (for best article in the Journal of the History of Ideas)
- 2005: Koret Foundation Publication Prize
- 2008: Templeton Prize for Theological Promise (for a first book on “God or spirituality”)
- 2009: Best First Book in History of Religion, American Academy of Religion (co-winner)
Web links
- Benjamin Lazier's Faculty Page, Reed College
- Benjamin Lazier's Faculty Page, University of California, Berkeley
- Benjamin Lazier's Faculty Page, Harvard University
- Benjamin Lazier's Faculty Page, Stanford University
- Princeton University Press
- Oxfordjournals: Earthrise; or, The Globalization of the World Picture
- University of Pittsburgh Press
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lazier, Benjamin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American historian and professor at Reed College, Portland |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 21, 1971 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Jerusalem |