Nathaniel Berman

Nathaniel Berman is the Rahel Varnhagen Professor of International Affairs, Law, and Modern Culture. Berman's scholarship focuses on the construction of modern internationalism through its relationships to nationalism, colonialism, and religion. In particular, it looks at early 20th century internationalism as one of the sites of the invention of cultural modernism. Berman's work is broadly interdisciplinary, drawing on literary criticism, cultural studies, post-colonial theory, and religious studies. He formerly taught international law at Brooklyn Law School and Northeastern University School of Law. He received his JD from Harvard Law School and his BA from Yale University.

Berman is currently co-leading the "Religion and Internationalism Project," an interdisciplinary project at Brown involving teaching, research, and scholarly collaboration. This project is being undertaken in close cooperation between the Cogut Center and the Religious Studies Department, including co-sponsorship of the "Religion and Internationalism Faculty Colloquium."

Berman's most recent publications include The Ambivalence of 'Walls' in the Internationalist Imagination: Legal Scandal or the Foundation of Legal Order?, in Jean-Marc Sorel (ed.) Les Murs et le droit international (Paris, Editions Pedone 2010); Aestheticism, Rationalism, and Esotericism: Medieval Scholarship and Contemporary Polemics, Jewish Quarterly Review (2009); and Power and Irony, or, International Law after the Après-Guerre, in Emmanuelle Jouannet, Hélène Ruiz Fabri, & Jean-Marc Sorel (eds.), Le droit international vu par une génération de juristes (Paris: Pedone 2008). His book Passion and Ambivalence: Nationalism, Colonialism, and International Law was published by Brill in 2011. His article, The Sacred Conspiracy: Religion, Nationalism, and the Crisis of Internationalism, was published as the central article of a symposium issue of the Leiden Journal of International Law in January 2012. Berman's article, Bernard Lazare: Radical Modernism and Jewish Identity, will also be published next year in Jacques Picart, Jacques Revel, Michael Steinberg, and Idith Zertal (eds.), Thinking Jewish Modernity: Thinkers, Writers, Artists, Shapers of Jewish Identity.