Catherine Guisan is a US citizen, raised in a French-speaking Swiss family with Greek Ottoman roots. After 25 years of non-profit work on 3 continents, she got her PhD in Political Science at the University of Minnesota, where she is Visiting Associate Professor. She is the author of Un sens à l’Europe: Gagner la Paix (1950-2003) (Odile Jacob, 2003) and A Political Theory of Identity in European Integration: Memory and policies (Routledge, 2011), and many articles. She is writing a new book, Making and Unmaking Peace in Europe (Agenda, 2025). She has taught at the University of Minnesota, in French, and Dutch universities, and as a Fulbright scholar at European University, St Petersburg, 2013. She returned to Russia for lectures on behalf of the U.S. State Department’s Speaker Program in 2016. She served as the first chair of the American Political Science Association(APSA)’s Status Committee on contingent faculty in the profession (2016-2019) and on the APSA’s Council where she successfully advocated for the first policy text on minimum standards for contingent faculty (2020-2023). For more information on APSA policies on contingent faculty, see below Recent and topical publications.
Beside courses on European Integration Politics, Introduction to Political Theory, and Political Development Catherine Guisan has developed three new courses in Democratic Theory: The Politics of Reconciliation, Democracy and the Other, and International Democracy: Dangerous Utopia or Realistic Goal?
Recent and topical publications:
- "Right-Wing Populism and the European Parliament’s Agonistic Politics." Populism, 5(1), 48-71. Open Access. https://doi.org/10.1163/25888072-bja10032
- "Thinking through the 'Russian Problem:' Learning from Hannah Arendt and the 'German Problem.'" Council of European Studies On-Line Journal EuropeNow, March 14, 2022. https://www.europenowjournal.org/2022/03/14/thinking-through-the-russian-problem_learning_from_hannah_arendt_and_the_german_problem/
- “'Beautiful feelings' in Literature and the Palestine/Israel Relationship." The Society Pages, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota, July 27, 2021.https://thesocietypages.org/holocaust-genocide/beautiful-feelin…- palestine-israel-relationship/2021
- Guisan, "Of Political Resurrection and 'Lost Treasures' in Soviet and Russian Politics, Europe-Asia Studies," November 2018. Open Access.
APSA policy texts and article on contingent faculty:
- 2023 Revised APSA Ethics Guide, pp. 30; 49-51. https://apsanet.org/ethics
- "Introducing the Minimum Standards Developed by APSA's Status Committee on the Status of Contingent Faculty in the Profession." Political Science Now, March 2024. https://politicalsciencenow.com/introducing-the-minimum-standar…
Educational Background
- Ph.D.: Political Science, University of Minnesota, 2000