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College of Arts and Sciences

Department of Sociology

Faculty - Lutz Kaelber

Lutz Kaelber, Associate Professor

Area of expertise

Collective memory, theory, Max Weber, comparative historical sociology, disability studies, sociology of religion, sociology of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust

Contact Information
Email: Lutz Kaelber
Phone: (802) 656-4197

Office Hours: By appointment

Website: Lutz Kaelber's Website

Lutz Kaelber specializes in the sociology of collective memory and in the social theory of Max Weber. Having grown up in Germany, where he received graduate degrees in economics and sociology from the University of Mannheim, he received his PhD from Indiana University, Bloomington, working under the distinguished historical sociologist David Zaret.

He is the author of Schools of Asceticism: Ideology and Organization in Medieval Religious Communities (Penn State Press, 1998), which was awarded the Best Book Award of the Sociology of Religion section of the American Sociological Association in 1999. He has translated and introduced Max Weber's History of Commercial Partnerships in the Middle Ages (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003), co-edited The Protestant Ethic Turns 100: Essays on the Centenary of the Weber Thesis (with William Swatos; Paradigm Publishers, 2005), and compiled several collections of teaching materials published by the American Sociological Association.

Professor Kaelber's current research is on the collective memory of trauma and focuses on social Darwinism and the commemoration of Nazi medical crimes in Germany, Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic. He is co-editor of the book Child Murder and “Special Children’s Wards” in Nazi Europe:  Commemoration and Historical Research (Hamburg 2011; table of contents). His most recent articles are “Commemoration of NS-‘Children’s Euthanasia’: A Case Study of the Eichberg Asylum” (Gedenkstätten Rundbrief no. 161, 2011: 14-24) and "Virtual Traumascapes: The Commemoration of Nazi 'Children's Euthanasia' Online and On Site" (Digital Icons: Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media no. 4, 2010: 13-44).

He has been a member of the Faculty Committee of the Carolyn and Leonard Miller Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont since 2007.

In addition to regular travel to Europe for research, he enjoys life in Vermont and can frequently be found in the UVM gym.

 

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