Quinn Slobodian (born 1978) is a Canadian historian specialising in modern Germany and international history. He is currently Professor of International History at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

. Previously, he was the Marion Butler McLean Professor of the History of Ideas at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a Private university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...

and a Residential Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs,

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. Slobodian is a 2025

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...

Biography

Slobodian was born in 1978 in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

. His father was a doctor. The family moved to

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest ...

in 1981, and relocated to

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

a few years later. They left for

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

in the South Pacific, in 1992, and returned to Canada a year later. He studied history at

Lewis & Clark College Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1867 and is situated on the historic M. Lloyd Frank Estate in South Portland's Collins View neighborhood. It is composed of three distinct but adjac ...

, graduating in 2000, and was awarded his PhD by

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

in 2008. Between 2013 and 2014, he was a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

at the Dahlem Humanities Centre of Free University Berlin. In 2015, he became the Marion Butler McLean Professor of the

History of Ideas Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual hist ...

. He interrupted his teaching career in 2017 for a year as a

residential fellow In American higher education, a residential fellow usually refers to a paid administrator who supervises a given "area" of a campus residential system. The RF is responsible for, among other things, the residence assistants under his or her juris ...

at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs,

. Since 2024, Slobodian has been Professor of International History at

. In the same year, he was a

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting scientist, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic fo ...

at University of Roma 3. Weatherhead Center for International Affairs,

. Until January 2025, Slobodian was a co-editor of ''

Contemporary European History ''Contemporary European History'' is an international peer-reviewed academic history journal founded in 1992 and published quarterly by Cambridge University Press. The journal covers the history of Europe from 1914 onwards and publishes three mai ...

''. He has written the books ''Foreign Front: Third World Politics in Sixties West Germany'' (2012), ''Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism'' (2018), and ''Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy'' (2023).

Publications

As author: * ''Foreign Front: Third World Politics in Sixties West Germany'', Duke UP, 2012. * ''Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism'', Harvard UP, 2018. * ''Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy'', Metropolitan, 2023. * ''Hayek's Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right'', Zone Books, April 2025. As editor: * ''Comrades of Color: East Germany in the Cold War World'', Berghahn Books, 2015. * ''Nine Lives of Neoliberalism'', with Dieter Plehwe and

Philip Mirowski Philip Mirowski (born 21 August 1951 in Jackson, Michigan) is a historian and philosopher of economic thought at the University of Notre Dame. He received a PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan in 1979. Career In his 1989 book ''More ...

, Verso, 2020. * ''Market Civilizations: Neoliberals East and South'', with Dieter Plehwe, Zone Books, 2020.

References

External links

* 21st-century Canadian historians Contemporary historians Political historians Historians of Germany Boston University faculty Wellesley College faculty Harvard University staff Canadian expatriate academics in the United States Living people 1978 births New York University alumni {{US-historian-stub

Biography

Publications

References

Further reading

External links