Pamela E. Swett

Last updated
Pamela E. Swett
Dean of Humanities McMaster University
Assumed office
July 1, 2019
Personal details
Alma mater Bryn Mawr College (BA)
Brown University (PhD)
Academic work
Discipline History
Sub-discipline History of Nazi Germany
Institutions

Pamela E. Swett is a Canadian-American historian of 20th-century Germany and professor in the History department at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Swett has been the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at McMaster University since 2019. [1]

Contents

Education and career

Swett has a bachelor's degree from Bryn Mawr College. She completed her Ph.D. at Brown University in 1999. [2] She moved to McMaster University in 1999, and was promoted to full professor by 2015. [3] In 2019 she became the dean of humanities at McMaster. [4]

Work

Swett's research is focused on the social and cultural history of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. She is the author of several books and articles and is a coeditor of Reshaping Capitalism in Weimar and Nazi Germany with Moritz Föllmer (2022); Pleasure and Power in Nazi Germany (2011) with Fabrice d'Almeida and Corey Ross; and Selling Modernity: advertising in twentieth-century Germany (2007) with Jonathan Wiesen and Jonathan Zatlin. Swett and Wiesen are also coeditors of the Nazi Germany section of the online resource "German History in Documents and Images" by the German Historical Institute.

As dean, Swett has played a key role in the establishment of the Wilson College of Leadership and Civic Engagement. [5] [6] In September 2022, Swett announced that the humanities at McMaster would be receiving a donation of 50 million dollars, the largest ever gift to the humanities in Canada from Lynton "Red" Wilson. The gift will establish a new multi-disciplinary college at McMaster; the Wilson College will be offering degrees in leadership and civic studies and will be the only program of its kind in Canada at the undergraduate level. [7] [8]

Selected publications

Honors and awards

Her dissertation received Brown University's Joukowsky Family Dissertation Award for distinguished thesis in the Social Sciences in 1999.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weimar culture</span> Emergence of art and science in the Weimar Republic

Weimar culture was the emergence of the arts and sciences that happened in Germany during the Weimar Republic, the latter during that part of the interwar period between Germany's defeat in World War I in 1918 and Hitler's rise to power in 1933. 1920s Berlin was at the hectic center of the Weimar culture. Although not part of the Weimar Republic, some authors also include the German-speaking Austria, and particularly Vienna, as part of Weimar culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swastika</span> Transcultural religious symbol

The swastika is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly found in various Eurasian cultures, as well as some African and American ones. In the western world it is more widely recognized as a symbol of the German Nazi Party who appropriated it from Asian cultures starting in the early 20th century. The appropriation continues with its use by neo-Nazis around the world. The swastika never stopped being used as a symbol of divinity and spirituality in Indian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It generally takes the form of a cross, the arms of which are of equal length and perpendicular to the adjacent arms, each bent midway at a right angle.

<i>Völkisch</i> movement German ethnic and nationalist movement

The Völkisch movement was a German ethnic nationalist movement active from the late 19th century through the dissolution of the German Reich in 1945, with remnants in the Federal Republic of Germany afterwards. Erected on the idea of "blood and soil", inspired by the one-body-metaphor, and by the idea of naturally grown communities in unity, it was characterized by organicism, racialism, populism, agrarianism, romantic nationalism and – as a consequence of a growing exclusive and ethnic connotation – by antisemitism from the 1900s onward. Völkisch nationalists generally considered the Jews to be an "alien people" who belonged to a different Volk from the Germans.

Detlev Peukert was a German historian, noted for his studies of the relationship between what he called the "spirit of science" and the Holocaust and in social history and the Weimar Republic. Peukert taught modern history at the University of Essen and served as director of the Research Institute for the History of the Nazi Period. Peukert was a member of the German Communist Party until 1978, when he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany. A politically engaged historian, Peukert was known for his unconventional take on modern German history, and in an obituary, the British historian Richard Bessel wrote that it was a major loss that Peukert had died at the age of 39 as a result of AIDS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claudia Koonz</span> American historian of Nazi Germany

Claudia Ann Koonz is an American historian of Nazi Germany. Koonz's critique of the role of women during the Nazi era, from a feminist perspective, has become a subject of much debate and research in itself. She is a recipient of the PEN New England Award, and a National Book Award finalist. Koonz has appeared on the podcasts Holocaust, hosted by University of California Television, and Real Dictators, hosted by Paul McGann. In the months before the 2020 United States presidential election, Koonz wrote about the risks of autocracy in the United States for History News Network and the New School's Public Seminar.

Jonathan Wiesen is an American history professor. He is a professor of modern European history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and teaches courses on modern German history and the Holocaust.

Jeffrey C. Herf is an American historian of modern Europe, particularly modern Germany. He is Distinguished University Professor, of modern European history, Emeritus at the University of Maryland, College Park.

<span title="German-language text"><i lang="de">Roter Frontkämpferbund</i></span> German far-left paramilitary organization

The Roter Frontkämpferbund, usually called the Rotfrontkämpferbund (RFB), was a far-left paramilitary organization affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during the Weimar Republic. A legally registered association, the RFB was banned in 1929 but continued its work illegally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iron Front</span> German paramilitary organization

The Iron Front was a German paramilitary organization in the Weimar Republic which consisted of social democrats, trade unionists, and democratic socialists. Its main goal was to defend social democracy against what was seen as anti-democratic, totalitarian ideologies on the far-right and far-left. The Iron Front chiefly opposed the Sturmabteilung (SA) wing of the Nazi Party and the Antifaschistische Aktion wing of the Communist Party of Germany. Formally independent, it was intimately associated with the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). The Three Arrows, originally designed for the Iron Front, became a well-known social democratic symbol representing resistance against monarchism, Nazism, and communism during the parliamentary elections in November 1932. The Three Arrows were later adopted by the SPD itself.

<span title="German-language text"><i lang="de">Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold</i></span> German paramilitary organization (1924–33)

The Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold was an organization in Germany during the Weimar Republic with the goal to defend German parliamentary democracy against internal subversion and extremism from the left and right and to compel the population to respect and honor the new Republic's flag and constitution. It was formed by members of the left-wing Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the centre-right to right-wing German Centre Party, and the centrist German Democratic Party in February 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reactionary modernism</span> Political ideology characterized by embrace of technology and anti-Enlightenment thought

Reactionary modernism is a term first coined by Jeffrey Herf in the 1980s to describe the mixture of "great enthusiasm for modern technology with a rejection of the Enlightenment and the values and institutions of liberal democracy" that was characteristic of the German Conservative Revolutionary movement and Nazism. In turn, this ideology of reactionary modernism was closely linked to the original, positive view of the Sonderweg, which saw Germany as the great Central European power, neither of the West nor of the East.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bielefeld School</span> Group of German historians

The Bielefeld School is a group of German historians based originally at Bielefeld University who promote social history and political history using quantification and the methods of political science and sociology. The leaders include(d) Hans-Ulrich Wehler, now deceased, Jürgen Kocka and Reinhart Koselleck, also now deceased. Instead of emphasizing the personalities of great historical leaders, as in the conventional approach, it concentrates on socio-cultural developments. History as "historical social science" has mainly been explored in the context of studies of German society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The movement has published the scholarly journal Geschichte und Gesellschaft: Zeitschrift fur Historische Sozialwissenschaft since 1975.

The Muchow Plan was an organisational structure for Nazi Party membership developed by Reinhold Muchow when he was leader of the Greater Berlin Gau 1 in 1925.

Hans Severus Ziegler was a German publicist, theater manager, teacher and Nazi Party official. A leading cultural director under the Nazis, he was closely associated with the censorship and cultural co-ordination of the Third Reich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of advertising</span> Major force in capitalist economies

The history of advertising can be traced to ancient civilizations. It became a major force in capitalist economies in the mid-19th century, based primarily on newspapers and magazines. In the 20th century, advertising grew rapidly with new technologies such as direct mail, radio, television, the internet and mobile devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific Coast Biscuit Company</span>

The Pacific Coast Biscuit Company was a conglomerate of baking companies headquartered in Portland, Oregon, United States that manufactured cookies, crackers, candy, and macaroni. The company, also known as Pacific Coast, was formed in 1899, and it was purchased by the National Biscuit Company in 1930. It was the only baking company in the United States to trademark a swastika.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transvestite pass</span> Certificate formerly used in Germany

A transvestite pass was a doctor's note recognized by the governments of Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic, under the support of sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, identifying a person as a transvestite. Transvestite at this time referred to all individuals whose gender identity or preferred clothing was discordant to that associated with their assigned sex, and so included both cross-dressing and transgender people. As gender-confirming surgery was only an emerging practice in the early 20th century, obtaining a Transvestitenschein, along with an official name change, represented the maximum extent to which many trans individuals could transition.

Secret Reports on Nazi Germany: The Frankfurt School Contribution to the War Effort is a book composed of the original Office of Strategic Services reports on Nazi Germany prepared primarily by Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, and Otto Kirchheimer, who had all been part of the original Frankfurt School of critical theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flag of the German Empire</span> Flag of Germany from 1867 to 1935

The Flag of the German Empire, or Imperial Flag, Realm Flag is a combination between the flag of Prussia and the flag of the Hanseatic League. Starting as the national flag of the North German Confederation, it would go on to be commonly used officially and unofficially under the nation-state of the German Reich, which existed from 1871 to 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Zörgiebel</span> German politician (1878–1961)

Karl Friedrich Zörgiebel was a German politician and police official.

References

  1. "Swett, Pamela E. 1970– | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  2. Swett, Pamela Eden (1999). "Neighborhood mobilization and the violence of collapse : Berlin political culture, 1929-1933" . Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  3. "Pamela E Swett - McMaster Experts". experts.mcmaster.ca. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  4. "Pamela Swett is the next dean of humanities" . Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  5. "Announcements - March 2024". University Affairs. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  6. "McMaster University - Search begins for Wilson College director and endowed chair". Education News Canada. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  7. "At McMaster University, Building a Better 2080 Starts Now | The Walrus". 2023-11-27. Retrieved 2024-06-03.
  8. "In photos: A celebration of a transformational $50M investment in Canada's future leaders" . Retrieved 2024-06-03.
  9. Reviews of Neighbors and enemies
  10. Reviews of Selling Modernity
  11. Reviews of Selling under the swastika
  12. Föllmer, Moritz; Swett, Pamela E., eds. (2022). Reshaping capitalism in Weimar and Nazi Germany. Publications of the German Historical Institute. Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-1-108-83354-7.