Susan Olzak, born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, in 1947. Ph.D. from Stanford University. Professor of Sociology at Stanford University.
Fellow (1 September 2000 – 30 June 2001)
My research at NIAS was mainly devoted to five projects: research and analysis of data on ethnic and racial conflict in over 100 countries from 1965-1999 for my forthcoming book, “The Dynamics of Ethnic Mobilization”; research on the emergence of ethnic identity and ethnic conflict and preparation of a research proposal (submitted to Russell Sage Foundation in April 2001); theoretical and empirical analysis of right-wing extremist violence in contemporary German states, 1989 through 1999; preparation of research paper “The Ecology of Tactics”, on the impact of tactical overlap on protest activity (conditionally accepted at The American Sociological Review, and finally, the analysis of state-level data on the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S.A. In addition, I thoroughly enjoyed participating in lively discussions in the monthly workshop I organised on ethnic identity, immigration, right-wing politics, and conflict. In my view, the success of this NIAS workshop was due to the fact that it included participants from a number of diverse disciplines.