Education: M.A. at University of Heidelberg; Ph.D. in Sociology at Universität Münster, Germany.

Research interests: Comparative historical analysis of societies in Europe and of civilizations on a global level; Selective advantages of different cultural codings, within a culturalist framework and constructionist and evolutionary heuristics; Comparative historical investigations of public opinion and of "collective identity" at a national and at an European level, with reference to different codings of national identity; Sociological analysis of intellectual rituals of discourse: specific social embeddedness of intellectuals, generation-specific position and public self-thematization; National rituals of remembrance: differentiation and determination of function of different forms of collective memory, historical change of remembrance rituals with regard to the conflicts between triumph and trauma; General sociological theory: history of different sociological paradigms, classical dichotomies (reduction and emergence, micro- and macro sociology, culturalism and utilitarism); Analytic philosophy, deconstructivism, and constructionist "laboratory studies": integration within a culturalist evolutionary framework.

Web resources on Professor Giesen: Giesen's profile at European University Institute ( http://www.iue.it/SPS/People/Faculty/FormerProfessors/bioGiesen.shtml)

Updated: January 28, 2007