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Erik Ringmar : Curriculum Vitae

Erik Ringmar (林瑞谷)

I was born in Luleå in northern Sweden in 1960 and grew up in Sundsvall, a big industrial town on the Botnic Gulf. I went to the universities in Uppsala and Stockholm, where I studied Japanese language and political science, before going off to the US to do a PhD in political science at Yale University. Over the years I have also lived in Japan, Italy and Thailand and England. From the spring of 2007 I'm a professor at the National Jiaotong University, Xinzhu, Taiwan. I'm married to Diane Pranzo and we have four daughters: Saga Maria, 14 years old, Beata Amanda, 12, Yrsa Johanna, 9, Rima Birgitta, 6.

contact details:

education:

  • Filosofie doktor, Dept of Government, Uppsala University, Sweden. January 1997.

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Dept of Political Science, Yale University, New Haven, USA. Spring, 1993. (Committee: Alexander Wendt, James C. Scott, Walter Carlsnaes)

  • European University Institute, Florence, Italy, 1991-93. Dissertation work.

  • Master of Philosophy, Dept of Political Science, Yale University, New Haven, USA, autumn, 1989.

  • Master of Arts, Dept of International Relations, Yale University, New Haven, USA, autumn, 1988.

  • Bachelor of Arts, University of Uppsala/ University of Stockholm, spring, 1985. With a concentration in political science and Japanese language.

academic jobs:

  • National Chiao Tung University, Xinzhu, Taiwan. Professor, Institute of General Education and Institute of Social and Cultural Studies. Spring 2007 - present. Convenor of courses on "International Relations and Organizations," "Advanced Topics in International Politics," "Global Political Economy," "Orientalism," "The State and Prosperity" and "Cultures of Entrepreneurship," "Culture & Identities," "Free Speech on the Internet," and "Politics of Resistance."

  • Dept of Government, London School of Economics & Political Science, London, United Kingdom. Michaelmas term, 1995 - 2006. Senior lecturer with tenure. Convenor of MSc and BSc courses on political economy, the history of political institutions, democracy, power, nationalism and ethnic conflict resolution.

  • Dept of Government, London School of Economics & Political Science, London, United Kingdom. Michaelmas term, 1998 - 2005. Convenor Master's program in Comparative Politics with responsibility for student admissions.

  • LSE Summer School, London, UK, 1998 to 2006. Course proprietor ''Financial Institutions: History, Politics & Crises,'' and ''Cultures of Capitalism: East and West Compared.''

  • Visiting professor, University of Dalarna, Sweden, September 2002.

  • Visiting professor at the Dept of International Relations, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, 2001/02.

  • Swedish Institute of International Affairs, Stockholm, Sweden. January 1994 - September, 1995. Research fellow.

selected awards & grants:

  • Ministry of Education, Republic of China, Human Rights Education Award (for Chinese translation of A Blogger's Manifesto), November 2009.

  • National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. Distinguished Scholar Award, October 2007.

  • MacArthur Foundation, Yale Dissertation Scholarship, 1988-89.

  • SAAB/ Sweden-America Foundation Scholarship, 1986-87.

  • Fulbright Foundation, Fulbright Scholarship, 1985-86.

monographs:

  1. Liberal Barbarism and the Destruction of the Palace of the Emperor of China, Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, forthcoming 2010.

  2. A Blogger's Manifesto: Free Speech and Censorship in the Age of the Internet, London: Anthem Books, 2007. Chinese translation: 林瑞谷著，李宗義、許雅淑譯，2009，《部落客宣言》，台北：群學出版社。

  3. The Mechanics of Modernity in Europe & East Asia: The Institutional Origins of Social Change and Stagnation London: Routledge, 2005; paperback 2009. Also published in paperback as Why Europe Was First: Social Change and Economic Success in Europe and East Asia, 1500-2050, London: Anthem Books, 2007.

  4. Surviving Capitalism: How We Learned to Live with the Market and Remained Almost Human London: Anthem Books, 2005.

  5. Identity, Interest & Action: A Cultural Explanation of Sweden's Intervention in the Thirty Years War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Paperback edition, 2008.

edited volumes:

  1. Erik Ringmar & Thomas Lindemann, eds., The International Politics of Recognition. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, forthcoming 2010. (contributions by Alessandro Pizzorno, Axel Honneth, Ned Lebow, Charles Doran, and others)

articles in SSCI & A&HCI journals:

  1. “Modernity, Boredom and War: A Suggestive Essay," with Jorg Kustermans, accepted for publication in Review of International Studies.

  2. “Thinking Men and Ideals Betrayed: Bentham, Coleridge and British Imperialism in China in the Nineteenth Century," accepted for publication in Nineteenth Century Studies.

  3. "'How to Fight Savage Tribes': The Global War on Terror in Historical Perspective," accepted for publication in Terrorism and Political Violence.

  4. "Inter-Textual Relations: The Quarrel over the War in Iraq as a Conflict between Narratives Types," Cooperation and Conflict, 41:4, 2006. pp. 403-21.

  5. "Liberal Barbarism and the Oriental Sublime: The European Destruction of the Emperor''s Summer Palace," Millennium, 34:3, 2006. pp. 917-33. In Chinese as 壯美，常理，火燒圓明園, Cultural Studies Quarterly (Taiwan), March 2006.

  6. "Audience for a Giraffe: European Exceptionalism and the Quest for the Exotic," Journal of World History, 17:4, December, 2006. pp. 353-97.

  7. "The Recognition Game: Soviet Russia Against the West," Cooperation and Conflict, no 2, 2002. pp. 115-36.

  8. "Nationalism: The Idiocy of Intimacy," British Journal of Sociology, 1998.

  9. ''Reimagining Sweden: The Rhetorical Battle over EU Membership,'' Scandinavian Journal of History, 1998.

  10. "On the Ontological Status of the State," European Journal of International Relations, vol 2, no. 4, 1996.

  11. ''Relevance of International Law: A Hegelian Interpretation of a Peculiar 17th Century Preoccupation,'' Review of International Studies, vol. 21, no. 1, 1995.

  12. ''Historical Writing and Rewriting: Gustav II Adolf, the French Revolution, and the Historians,'' Scandinavian Journal of History, vol. 18, no. 4, 1993.

articles in the pipeline:

  1. "Performing International Relations: Two East-Asian Alternatives to the Westphalian Order," Review of International Studies, "revise and resubmit."

  2. "The Wonders of Science: Demonstrating the Superiority of European Civilization to the Chinese, 1793 and 1860," submitted to Comparative Studies in Society and History, December, 2009.
  3. "Malice in Wonderland: European Perceptions of the Palace of the Emperor of China," submitted to Journal of World History.
  4. "Shouldering the White Man's Burden: Civilization against Culture in the Great China Debate of 1857," in Jozef Batora & Monika Mokre, eds. Bridges, Borders, Bribes?: Cultural Policies as External Policies (Ashgate: forthcoming, 2010)

articles in edited volumes:

  1. "The International Politics of Recognition," in Erik Ringmar & Thomas Lindemann, eds., The International Politics of Recognition. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, forthcoming 2010.
  2. "Metaphors of Social Order," in Politics, Language and Metaphor, edited by Terrell Carver & Jernej Pikalo (New York: Routledge, 2008)
  3. "Empowerment among Nations: A Sociological Perspective," in Power in World Politics, edited by Felix Berenskoetter & M. J. Williams (London/New York: Routledge, 2007)
  4. "The Power of Metaphor: Consent, Dissent & Revolution," in Discourse, Identity and Politics in Europe, edited by Richard C. M. Mole (London: Palgrave, 2007) pp. 111-36.
  5. "The Institutionalization of Modernity: Shocks and Crises in Germany and Sweden," in Culture and Crisis: The Case of Germany and Sweden, edited by Lars Trägårdh and Nina Witozek (New York: Berghanh, 2002) pp. 24-42.
  6. ''Alexander Wendt: A Social Scientist Struggling with History,'' in The Future of International Relations: Masters in the Making, edited by Iver B. Neumann & Ole Wæver (London: Routledge, 1997)

  7. ''Two Case Studies: the United States Leaves the ILO and Unesco,'' (together with Jens Bartelson), in The United Nations at Forty: International Cooperation in Crisis, edited by Bo Huldt and Maria Falk (Stockholm: Swedish Institute of International Affairs, 1985)

other academic articles

  1. "Francis Lieber, Terrorism, and the American Way of War," Perspectives on Terrorism, vol. 3, no. 4, 2009.

  2. "Liberal Barbarism and Imperial Transgression," Naked Punch, October, 2006.

  3. "Critical Thinking as Institutionalised Practice: East and West Compared," in Manusya, (Thailand) no. 1-2, 2001.
  4. "Why Europe was First," Review of Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy, Journal of Social Science (Thailand), 2001. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000)
  5. “The Social Construction of Nationalism,'' Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift, (Sweden), vol. 102, no. 1, 1999. Review of Patrik Hall, The Social Construction of Nationalism (Lund: Lund University Press, 1998)
  6. ''On the Causes of War,'' Cooperation & Conflict, vol. 32, no. 2, 1997. Review of Hidemi Suganami,The Causes of War (Oxford: OUP, 1996)
  7. ''Russia: Territory and Identity Crises,'' Nations and Nationalism, vol. 2, no. 3, 1996. Review of Contested Territory: Border Disputes at the Edge of the Former Soviet Empire, edited by Toumas Forsberg (Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1995) and Peacekeeping and the Role of Russia in Eurasia, edited by Lena Jonsson and Clive Archer (Boulder: Westview, 1996)
  8. The International Politics of Recognition: Soviet Russia Against the West, 1917-1939, Stockholm: Swedish Institute of International Affairs, research report, no. 24, 1996.

next research projects

selected journalism

 talks and lectures

  • "The Governance of Globalization: East Asian Solutions to the Problems of Westphalia," talk given at Sciences-Po, France, June 9, 2009; University of Antwerp, Belgium, June 10, 2009; University of Tampere, Finland, August 13, 2009; USM, Penang, Malaysia, January 28, 2010.

  • "How to Fight Savage Tribes," talk given at Sciences-Po, France, June 9, 2009; University of Tampere, Finland, August 14, 2009.

  • "The Intertextuality of War: The Case of the Iraq War," talk given at Sciences-Po, France, June 11, 2009.

  • "The Duality of Wonder and the European Attempt to Understand the World: The Case of the Palace of the Emperor of China," conference at Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, on "The Unthinkable: Thinking Beyond the Limits of Culture." 13-14 December, 2008.

  • "The Sublime, the Commonsensical, and the Destruction of the Emperor''s Summer Palace," talk given at Center for Social and Cultural Studies, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwain, November 26, 2005; conference paper at "Between Fear and Wonder: International Politics, Representation and the Sublime," Millennium, London School of Economics and Political Science, 29-30 October, 2005.

  • ''Surviving Capitalism,'' talk given at Centre for Well-being in Development, University of Bath, 28 October, 2005.

  • "The Empowerment of Nations: A Sociological View,'' Historical Sociology in International Relations Workshop, Goldsmith College, London. 23 September, 2005.

  • "Metaphors of Social Order in Europe, China & Japan,'' talk presented at the Conference of East-West Philosophy, Nanjing University, 7 September 2004; and ECPR Joint Session, Granada, 14-19 April, 2005.

  • "Nationalism,'' and ''Democracy,'' lectures given at the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, January 24 and 31, 2002.

  • "The Nests and the Hives: Surviving Capitalism in East Asia and the West,'' talk given at the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, December 7, 2001; East Asian Institute, Singapore National University, December 7, 2001.

  • "The Meeting of the Twain: East Asia and the West as Each Other's Others,'' faculty workshop, Dept of Politics and International Relations, Keele University, UK, May 15, 2000.

  • "Revolutions and Modernity,'' Cumberland Lodge, London School of Economics, UK, January 28, 1999.

  • "Self-Making in International Politics,'' lecture at Dept of International Relations, February 15, 1999. Keele University, UK

  • "The Institutionalisation of Modernity: Crises and the Response to Crises in Germany and Sweden,'' conference on ''Communities in Peril,'' European University Institute, Florence, Italy, October 2-5, 1997.

  • "The Recognition Game: Soviet Russia against the West, 1917-1996,'' talk given at the annual meeting of the British International Studies Association, Durham, December 17, 1996, and at the Dept of International Relations, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, May 28, 1997.

  • "An Answer to the Question: "What is Post-Modernism"?,'' faculty workshop, Dept of Government, LSE, February 20, 1997.

  • "Nationalism: the Importance of a Word,'' talk given at the Workshop on Southern Europe and the Balkans, LSE, October 11, 1995.

  • "Why Did Sweden Go to War in 1630?,'' lecture given at the Wasa Museum, Stockholm, Sweden, March 11, 1994.

  • "The Relevance of International Law: A Hegelian Interpretation of a Peculiar 17th Century Preoccupation,'' paper presented at the annual meeting of the Swedish Political Science Association, Gothenburg, Sweden, October 4-5, 1993.

  • Participant in the ''Young Social Scientists' Dialog on the Future of Social Sciences in Europe,'' Schweisfurth Foundation, Munich, Germany, April 1-2, 1993.

  • "Historical Method and Historical Person,'' lecture given at the General Seminar, Dept of History, University of Lund, March 23, 1993.

  • "Cultural Theory and Cultural Change: An International Relations Perspective,'' presentation given at the SCASSS seminar on ''Cultural Theory and Social Organization, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden, June 11-12, 1991.

  • "Nationalism: Myth as Reality,'' Foreign Policy Association, Uppsala, Sweden, March 23, 1991.

  • "Why Are There Wars?'', Dept of Government Summer School, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, August 5, 1990.

  • United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, summer, 1985. Participant in the United Nations 23rd Graduate Study Programme.

professional activities

  • Reviewer for Anthem Press, Cambridge University Press, Polity Press, University College Dublin Press; and British Journal of Sociology, Cooperation & Conflict, Ethnic and Racial Studies, European Journal of International Relations, International Studies Quarterly, International Theory, Japanese Journal of Political Science, Journal of Development and International Relations, Journal of Politics, Millennium, Nations & Nationalism, Pakistan Journal of International Relations, Political Studies, Review of International Studies, Sociological Theory.

  • Faculty Fellow, Yale Center for Cultural Sociology, 2005 - present.

  • Member of the International Advisory Board, Centre for Social Development Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. 2003-present.

  • Member of the Editorial Board of Perspectives: The Review of International Affairs; and the Advisory Board of the Pakistan Journal of International Relations.

  • examiner, PhD examinations: 1) Dept of Political Science, U of Tampere, August, 2009; 2) Dept of Government, LSE, February 3, 2006; 3) Dept of Political Science, University of Lund, June 8, 1998.