Mark R. Beissinger (November 28, 1954) is an American

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

. He is the Henry W. Putnam Professor of Politics at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

Early life

Beissinger was born on November 28, 1954 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. Beissinger received his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' from

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

in 1976 and his doctorate in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

in 1982.

Career

He taught at Harvard from 1982 until 1987, and at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

,Staff (March 1997) "People in Political Science" ''PS: Political Science and Politics'' 30(1): pp. 81-95, page 81 from 1988 until 2006. He served as chair of the UW-Madison Political Science Department from 2001 to 2004 and was the founding director of Wisconsin'
Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia
Since 2006 he has taught at

as a full professor. He served as director of the

Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies The Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) is the main research center for international studies and area studies at Princeton University and is one of the oldest centers of its kind in the United States. The Institut ...

. In 2007 he was president of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES). His work has been supported by fellowships and grants from the

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation is a private foundation formed in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Gr ...

, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, the Wissenshaftskolleg zu Berlin, the

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS) or Wilson Center is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topi ...

, the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

, and the

John M. Olin Foundation The John M. Olin Foundation was a conservative American grant-making foundation established in 1953 by John M. Olin, president of the Olin Industries chemical and munitions manufacturing businesses. Unlike most other foundations, it was char ...

Works

He is author of the books ''The Revolutionary City: Urbanization and the Global Transformation of Rebellion'' (2022), ''Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State'' (2002), and ''Scientific Management, Socialist Discipline, and Soviet Power'' (1988), and co-edited ''The Nationalities Factor in Soviet Politics and Society'' (1990, with Lubomyr Hajda), ''Beyond State Crisis? Post-Colonial Africa and Post-Soviet Eurasia Compared'' (2002, with M. Crawford Young), and ''Historical Legacies of Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe'' (2014, with Stephen Kotkin).

Recognition

* 2023 Luebbert Best Book Award for the best book published in the field of comparative politics over the previous two years, presented by the Comparative Politics section of the American Political Science Association. * 2017

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

. * 2003 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs * 2003 Mattei Dogan Award presented by the Society for Comparative Research for the best book published in the field of comparative research * Award for Best Book on European Politics presented by the Organized Section on European Politics and Society of the American Political Science Association.

References

External links

Academic homepage
1954 births Living people Writers from Philadelphia Writers about the Soviet Union Duke University alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Harvard University faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Princeton University faculty {{US-polisci-bio-stub