- Born: December 10, 1960, Luleå, Sweden.
- Citizenship: Swedish.
- Address: Margaretavägen 3E, 222 40 Lund, Sweden.
- Married, four children.
- E-mail: erik@ringmar.net
- Twitter: @lingreigu
- Languages: Swedish, English, French, Chinese, Japanese.
- Wikipedia page, “Erik Ringmar” (English, Swedish, Bahasa Indonesia)
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 (supervisor: Alessandro Pizzorno).
- 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:
- Lund University, Lund, Sweden. Dept of Political Science, Associate Professor, Spring 2014 – present. “Introduction to Political Science,” “Comparative International Systems,” “Rationality, Emotions and War,” “Modern Society and Its Critics.”
- University of Malmö, Malmö, Sweden; Mid-Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden. Adjunct Professor, Fall 2013. “Introduction to Political Theory”; “Introduction to International Politics,” “Democracy and Democratization.”
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. Zhi Yuan Chair professor of International Relations, School of International Public Administration. Spring 2011 – June 2014. Head of Department of International Relations. Courses on “Theories of International Relations,” “Introduction to International Politics,” “China’s Place in the World.”
- New York University, Shanghai. Adjunct Professor, Fall 2012 – Spring 2013. Course on “Orientalism.”
- Xinzhu Jiao Tong University, Taiwan, China. Professor, Institute of General Education and Institute of Social and Cultural Studies. Spring 2007 – Fall 2010. Convenor of courses on “International Relations and Organizations,” “Advanced Topics in International Politics,” “Global Political Economy,” “Orientalism,” “The State and Prosperity” and “Culture & Identities,” “Free Speech on the Internet,” and “Politics of Resistance.”
- London School of Economics & Political Science, Dept of Government, London, United Kingdom. Michaelmas term, 1995 – 2007. 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.
- London School of Economics & Political Science, Dept of Government, London, United Kingdom. Michaelmas term, 1998 – 2005. Convenor Master’s program in Comparative Politics with responsibility for student admissions.
- London School of Economics & Political Science, LSE Summer School, London, UK, 1998 to 2006. Course proprietor ”Financial Institutions: History, Politics & Crises,” and ”Cultures of Capitalism: East and West Compared.”
- University of Notre Dame, Adjunct professor, London campus, Spring 2003. “Introduction to Political Economy.”
- University of Dalarna, Sweden, Visiting professor, September 2002. “Global Political Economy.”
- Chulalongkorn University, Visiting professor at the Dept of International Relations, Bangkok, Thailand, 2001/02.
- Swedish Institute of International Affairs, Stockholm, Sweden. January 1994 – September, 1995. Research fellow.
- Yale University, New Haven, USA. Editorial Assistant, Journal of Conflict Resolution. January 1987 – December 1990.
- Yale University, Dept of Political Science, New Haven, USA. Teaching Assistant, September 1989 – December 1990. Courses in international relations and political theory.
Selected awards and research projects:
- Kaiyuan Excellent Teacher Award, Shanghai Jiaotong University, fall 2012.
- National Science Council, Taiwan, China, research grant, 2007-2010.
- Ministry of Education, Taiwan, China, Human Rights Education Award, November 2009.
- National Jiao Tong University, Xinzhu, Taiwan, China. Distinguished Scholar Award, October 2007 – 2010.
- MacArthur Foundation, Yale Dissertation Scholarship, 1988-89.
- SAAB/ Sweden-America Foundation Scholarship, 1986-87.
- Fulbright Foundation, Fulbright Scholarship, 1985-86.
Monographs:
- International Movements: The body politic on the world stage, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2018.
- History of International Relations, Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, forthcoming 2018.
- Liberal Barbarism: The European Destruction of the Palace of the Emperor of China, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Paperback 2015.
- The Mechanics of Modernity in Europe & East Asia: The Institutional Origins of Social Change and Stagnation London: Routledge, 2005; paperback 2009. ISBN: 978-0415547703. 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. ISBN: 978-0415547703.
- Surviving Capitalism: How We Learned to Live with the Market and Remained Almost Human London: Anthem Books, 2005. ISBN: 978-1843311751. In Korean translation, Seoul: Book & People Publishing Company, 2011.
- Identity, Interest & Action: A Cultural Explanation of Sweden’s Intervention in the Thirty Years War Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Paperback edition, 2006. ISBN: 978-0521026031.
Edited volume:
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Erik Ringmar & Thomas Lindemann, eds., The International Politics of Recognition. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, 2012. Paperback, 2014.
Articles in peer-reviewed journals:
- “The Problem with Performativity: Comments on the Contributions,” Journal of International Relations and Development, 21:1, 2018.
- “What Are Public Moods?,” European Journal of Social Theory, Online First, October 20, 2017.
- “‘The Spirit of 1914’: A Redefinition and a Defense,” War in History, Online First, June 1, 2017.
- “Comments on McCloskey and Weingast.” Scandinavian Economic History Review, 65:2, 2017. pp. 124-126.
- “Outline of a Non-Deliberative, Mood-Based, Theory of Action,” Philosophia, Online First, February 2017.
- “The Problem of the Modern Self: Imitation, Will Power and the Politics of Character,” International Political Anthropology, 9:1, May 2016.
- “How the World Stage Makes Its Subjects: An Embodied Critique of Constructivist IR Theory,” Journal of International Relations and Development, Online First, September 28, 2015.
- “The Search for Dialogue as a Hindrance to Understanding: Practices as Inter-paradigmatic Research Program,” International Theory, 6:1, 2014. pp. 1-27.
- “On the Reality of Mental Constructs,” Global Discourse, 4:4, 2014.
- “Recognition and the Origins of International Society,” Global Discourse, 4:4, 2014.
- “‘How to Fight Savage Tribes’: The Global War on Terror in Historical Perspective,” Journal of Terrorism and Political Violence, 25:2, 2013. pp. 264-283.
- “Imperial Vertigo and the Themed Experience: Yuanmingyuan and Disneyland Compared,” Human Geographies, 7:1, May 2013.
- “Performing International Systems: Two East-Asian Alternatives to the Westphalian Order,” International Organization, 66:2, Winter, 2012.
- “Thinking Men and Ideals Betrayed: Bentham, Coleridge and British Imperialism in China in the Nineteenth Century,” Nineteenth Century Studies, vol 26, no. 1, 2012. pp. 101-114.
- with Jorg Kustermans, “Modernity, Boredom and War: A Suggestive Essay,” Review of International Studies, 37:4, October 2011.
- “Malice in Wonderland: Dreams of the Orient and the Destruction of the Palace of the Emperor of China,” Journal of World History, 22:2, 2011. pp. 273-297.
- “Francis Lieber, Terrorism, and the American Way of War,” Perspectives on Terrorism, vol. 3, no. 4, 2009.
- “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.
- “Liberal Barbarism and the Oriental Sublime: The European Destruction of the Emperor”s Summer Palace,” Millennium, 34:3, 2006. pp. 917-33. Published in Chinese translation as 壯美,常理,火燒圓明園, (Liberal Barbarism and the Oriental Sublime), Cultural Studies Quarterly (Taiwan), March 2006.
- “Audience for a Giraffe: European Exceptionalism and the Quest for the Exotic,” Journal of World History, 17:4, December, 2006. pp. 353-97.
- “The Recognition Game: Soviet Russia Against the West,” Cooperation and Conflict, no 2, 2002. pp. 115-36.
- “Nationalism: The Idiocy of Intimacy,” British Journal of Sociology, 49:4, 1998.
- ”Reimagining Sweden: The Rhetorical Battle over EU Membership,” Scandinavian Journal of History, 23: 1/2, 1998.
- “On the Ontological Status of the State,” European Journal of International Relations, 2:4, 1996. pp. 439-466.
- ”Relevance of International Law: A Hegelian Interpretation of a Peculiar 17th Century Preoccupation,” Review of International Studies, vol. 21, no. 1, 1995.
- ”Historical Writing and Rewriting: Gustav II Adolf, the French Revolution, and the Historians,” , 18:4, 1993.
Articles in edited volumes:
- “Samuel Huntington and the American Way of War,” in The Clash of Civilizations: 25 Years On, edited by Davide Orsi, E-International Relations, 2018.
- “The Great Wall of China Does Not Exist,” in Walling, Boundaries and Liminality: A Political Anthropology of Transformations, edited by Agnese Horvath, Marius Benta and Joan Davidson (London: Routledge, 2018)
- “The Anti-Nomadic Bias of Political Theory,” in Nomad-State Relationships in International Relations: Before and After Borders, edited by Jamie Levin (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2018)
- “Order in a Borderless World: Nomads Confront Globalization,” in Theorizing Global Order, edited by Gunther Hellman (Frankfurt: Campus, 2018)
- “Heidegger on Willpower and the Mood of Modernity,” In Heidegger and the Global Age, edited by Antonio Cerella and Louiza Odysseos (Lanham, Rowman and Littlefield, 2018)
- “Eugene Gendlin and the Feel of International Politics,” in Researching Emotions in International Relations: Methodological Perspectives on the Emotional Turn, edited by M
- “Attention and the Cause of Modern Boredom,” in Boredom Studies: Postdisciplinary Inquiries, edited by Michael E. Gardiner and Julian Jason Haladyn. London: Routledge, 2016.
- “The Making of the Modern World,” International Relations: Beginner’s Guide, edited by Stephen McGlinchey. E-International Relations, 2016.
- “China’s Place in Four Recognition Regimes,” Recognition in International Relations: Rethinking an Ambivalent Concept in a Global Context, edited by Christopher Daase, Caroline Fehl, Anna Geis & Georgios Kolliarakis (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)
- “The Ritual–Performance Problem in Foreign Policy Analysis: European Diplomats at the Chinese Court,” in Fredrik Bynander & Stefano Guzzini, eds. The Agency-Structure Problem and the Study of Foreign Policy: Essays in Honor of Walter Carlsnaes, (London: Routledge, 2012) pp. 68-80.
- “Free Trade by Force: Civilization against Culture in the Great China Debate of 1857,” in Jozef Batora & Monika Mokre, eds. Culture and External Relations: Europe and Beyond (Ashgate: 2011)
- “The International Politics of Recognition,” in Erik Ringmar & Thomas Lindemann, eds., The International Politics of Recognition. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, 2010 .ISBN: 978-1594518096.
- “Metaphors of Social Order,” in Politics, Language and Metaphor, edited by Terrell Carver & Jernej Pikalo (New York: Routledge, 2008)
- “Empowerment among Nations: A Sociological Perspective,” in Power in World Politics, edited by Felix Berenskoetter & M. J. Williams (London/New York: Routledge, 2007)
- “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.
- “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.
- ”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) ― in Chinese translation, 2011.
- ”Two Case Studies: the United States Leaves the ILO and Unesco,” (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)
Review articles and book reviews:
- “A New Language for a New World: Review of Laust Schouenborg, International Institutions in World History,” The Disorder of Things, October 12, 2017.
- “Lucid Dreams; Perfect Nightmares: Consciousness, Capitalism and Our Sleeping Selves,” Distinktion, 2017.
- ”Börje Ljungren, Drömmen om revansch för historisk förnedring”. Tidskriften Respons, 3:2, 2015. (in Swedish).
- “Ivan Perkins, Vanishing Coup: The Pattern of World History Since 1310.” Cooperation & Conflict, 2016.
- “Review of Émile Zola, Jag anklagar.” Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift 117, no. 3 (2015): 482–85. (in Swedish).
- “Violent Protest, Contentious Politics and the Neoliberal State, edited by Seraphim Seferiades & Hank Johnston,” Contemporary Sociology, 44:4, 2015. 552-554.
- “Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy,” Journal of Social Science (Thailand), 2001.
- “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)
- ‘‘On the Causes of War,” Cooperation & Conflict, vol. 32, no. 2, 1997. Review of Hidemi Suganami, The Causes of War, 1996.
- ”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)
Other academic articles:
- “Pontus Fahlbeck, tidsandan och folkrörelserna,” (“Pontus Fahlbeck, Popular Movements, and the Mood of the Times,”) Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift, 116:3, 2014:323-346. In Swedish.
- “Performing International Relations,” Center for Policy Research and International Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, working paper, 125/10, April, 2010.
- “‘Wie man wilde Stämme bekämpft’: Der globale Krieg gegen den Terror in historischer Perspektive,” Osnabrücker Jahrbuch Frieden und Wissenschaft (Osnabrueck, V&R Press, 2009)
- “Liberal Barbarism and Imperial Transgression,” Naked Punch, October, 2006.
- “Critical Thinking as Institutionalised Practice: East and West Compared,” in Manusya, (Thailand) no. 1-2, 2001.
- The International Politics of Recognition: Soviet Russia Against the West, 1917-1939, Stockholm: Swedish Institute of International Affairs, research report, no. 24, 1996.
Referencing (as of January 2018):
Selected journalism:
- “The Swedish Government Is a Threat to Academic Freedom,” (in Swedish) Svenska Dagbladet, November 12, 2017.
- “The Study of Chinese Often a Waste of Resources,” (in Swedish) Dagens Nyheter, July 12, 2013.
- “For the Sake of China’s Future, Improve Chinese Universities,” Center for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Fudan University, February 2012.
- A Blogger‘s Manifesto: Free Speech and Censorship in the Age of the Internet, London: Anthem Books, 2007. iSBN: 978-1843312888 — in Chinese translation, 2009. ISBN: 9789866525117.
- “Liberate and Disseminate,” Times Higher Education Supplement, 10 April, 2008.
- “Guerrilla Bloggers and the Old Elite,” Huffington Post, 14 February 2008.
- “Slip of the Tongue Betrays True Quality of Elite.” Times Higher Education Supplement, August 18, 2006.
Selected conferences and lectures (past five years):
- “Boredom as a Public Mood.” Keynote address, Third International Boredom Conference, University of Warsaw, Poland. June 16-17, 2017.
- “Gandhi, Home-rule and the Critique of Modernity,” South Asian Studies Student Association, Lund University, October 20, 2016; State-Making in the Nineteenth-Century. Dept of Political Science, Lund University, Sweden, May 19-20, 2016.
- “Recognizing Recognition: A Research Program, and a Few Additional Thoughts,” Comenius University, Dept of Political Science, Bratislava, Slovakia, October 7, 2016.
- “’The Huns are Coming’: Anti-Nomadic Prejudice in an Era of Globalization,” Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, October 5, 2016.
- “History of International Relations: “China and East Asia,” and “The Muslim Caliphates,” Dept of International Relations, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, October 4 and 6, 2016.
- “Liberal Barbarism: Why Did the Europeans Destroy the Palace of the Emperor of China?” talk at the Center for East Asia Studies, Lund University, Jan 19, 2016; Swedish Institute of International Affairs, Sept 29, 2015; Dept of Political Science, U of Gothenburg, October 20, 2014; London School of Economics, May 21, 2014; School of Oriental and African Studies, May 22, 2014; University of Warwick, May 23, 2014; University of Michigan, October 2, 2012; New York University, October 4, 2012; Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University, October 5, 2012.
- “Heeding the Call of Being: Heidegger on Attention and Authenticity,” Heidegger in the Global Age, University of Sussex, Brighton, Oct 29-30, 2015.
- “The theater, hypnosis and suggestibility,” Malmö Theater Academy, Malmö Sweden, Oct 8, 2015.
- Discussant, “200 Years of Conference Diplomacy. From the Congress of Vienna to the G7 Meeting”, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Berlin. June 8-9, 2015.
- “Political Theory for Nomads,” Goethe Universität, Frankfurt, Germany, June 24, 2015; Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia, October 30, 2014.
- “Performance, Not Performativity: An Embodied Critique of Post-Structural IR Theory,” Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia, October 30, 2014; Workshop on Agency and Performativity in International Relations, Goethe Universität, Frankfurt, Germany. February 21-22, 2014.
- “What Are Public Moods?,” Dept of Political Science, Mid-Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden. Dec 20, 2013.
- “The Dream of the China Market: In the 19th Century and Today,” Dept of Society and Globalization, Roskilde University, Denmark, Sept 4, 2013.
- “Performing International Relations: Ontology, Recognition, Performativity,” Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, December 4, 2012; IDAS Conference, Chengchi University, Taipei, June 1, 2010; Dept of Public Administration, University of Macau, June 4, 2010; International Sociological Association, World Congress, Gothenburg, Sweden, July. 12, 2010; Shanghai Jiaotong University, China, Oct 21, 2010.
- “Ourselves in the Other: China’s Place in Four Recognition Regimes,” Goethe Universität, Frankfurt, Germany, June 22-23, 2012.
- “Practices, Performances, and How to Make War with a Hammer,” International Studies Association, San Diego, April 1-4, 2012.
- “The Remembering European Imperialism: The Memory of Humiliation in Contemporary China,” Johns Hopkins China Forum, Shanghai, Feb 28, 2012; Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, November 21, 2011; ThinkIn China, Beijing, October 27, 2011.
Examiner, PhD examinations:
- Dept of Political Science, Goethe Universität, Frankfurt, Germany, October 12, 2017.
- Dept of Philosophy, University of Karachi, Pakistan, January 22, 2015.
- Dept of Political Science, University of Queensland, Australia, August 7, 2014.
- Dept of Political Science, University of Tampere, Finland, August, 2009.
- Dept of Government, LSE, United Kingdom, February 3, 2006.
- Dept of Political Science, University of Lund, Sweden, June 8, 1998.
External PhD supervision
- Dept of Political Science, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark, March 2017-present.
- Dept of Political Science, Goethe Universität, Frankfurt, Germany, January 2015-July 2017.
Other professional activities:
- Member of the Academia.edu Editor Program, Nov 2015-present.
- Reviewer of research projects for The European Science Foundation, October 2010; The Dutch Council for the Humanities, January 2011; The Research Foundation – Flanders, June 2017.
- Reviewer of book manuscripts for Anthem Press, Cambridge University Press, Open Book Publishers, Polity Press, Sage, University College Dublin Press.
- Reviewer of articles submitted to American Historical Review, American Journal of Cultural Sociology, Asian Perspective, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, British Journal of Sociology, Contemporary Sociology, Cooperation & Conflict, Eighteenth-Century Life, Ethnic and Racial Studies, European Journal of International Relations, Geoforum, Geopolitics, Human Geographies, International History Review, International Organization, International Political Sociology, International Relations, International Security, International Studies Review, International Studies Quarterly, International Theory, Japanese Journal of Political Science, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Culture and Technology, Journal of Development and International Relations, Journal of Politics, Millennium, Nations & Nationalism, Pakistan Journal of International Relations, Political Studies, Review of International Studies, Security Dialogue, Security Studies, Sociological Theory, Terrorism and Political Violence, and Third World Quarterly.
- Faculty Fellow, Yale Center for Cultural Sociology, 2005 – present.
- International Advisory Board, The Sage Handbook of the History, Philosophy and Sociology of International Relations.
- Fellow at the Global Advisory Program, “Brain Korea 21 Plus,” Dept of Sociology, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea.
- Member of the International Advisory Board, Centre for Social Development Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. 2003 – present.
- Member of the Editorial Board of Human Geographies, spring 2014 – present; Journal of International Relations and Development (JIRD), fall 2012 – present; Perspectives: The Review of International Affairs, 2009 – present; Pakistan Journal of International Relations, 2008-present.
- Member of the Editorial Board of the book series on Media and Communication Studies at Anthem Press, London, UK. 2011 – present.
- Conducted tenure review, Dept of Law, Singapore Management University, January 2013.
- On the list of international referees, 1) BASR, University of Karachi, Pakistan. Jan 2015 – present; 2) Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan, March 2016 – present.
- Examiner, MA theses, Zhejian University, Hangzhou, China, June 2012.
- Member of the International Studies Association and the Heterodox Academy.