Catherine Guisan is Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA. She has also taught at Utrecht University and Amsterdam University Honors College, Netherlands; at Science Po, University Pierre Mendès-France, Grenoble, France; and as a Fulbright Scholar at European University, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
She is the author of two books A Political Theory of Identity: memory and policies (London and New York: Routledge 2011) and Un sens à l’Europe: Gagner la paix 1950-2003 (Paris: Odile Jacob 2003). The books discuss the ethical foundations of European integration, by drawing analytical categories from great political theorists such as Hannah Arendt, Jürgen Habermas, Paul Ricoeur and Charles Taylor. A Political Theory of Identity questions whether and how these ethical foundations might inspire an alternative politics for European integration. 100 long interviews with European leaders provide part of the empirical data.
Catherine Guisan has also published on the American political culture of international relations, the transatlantic relationship, political reconciliation, and cosmopolitan politics in academic journals, including Constellations, The Journal of Common Market Studies, Europe-Asia Studies, and in several edited volumes.
She has given many lectures related to the content of her research in Europe and the US. Topics have included:
- Civic Understanding: Why Memory Matters to the European Union’s Democratic Deficit
- The Greek Eurozone Crisis and Greek Civil Society
- US Influences on European Integration
- EU borders and the “Enlarged Mentality”
- The recognition of the Other and EU Enlargements: The Case of Turkey
- Uses and Abuses of the Principle of Reconciliation
- Collective Memory in Russia and Democratization
Catherine Guisan 