Enzo Traverso (born 14 October 1957) is an Italian scholar of European intellectual history. He is the author of several books on critical theory, the Holocaust, Marxism, memory, totalitarianism, revolution, and contemporary historiography. His books have been translated into numerous languages. After living and working in France for over 25 years, he is currently the Susan and Barton Winokur Professor in the Humanities at Cornell University.

Education

Enzo Traverso obtained a master's degree (Laurea) in modern history at the University of Genoa (Italy) in 1982. After moving to Paris in 1985 to further pursue his academic trajectory he completed his PhD program at School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in 1989, under the direction of Michael Löwy. In 2009 he achieved the academic qualification of habilitation (accreditation to supervise research).

Career

From 1989 through 1991, he worked for the International Institute for Research and Education (IIRE) based in Amsterdam, and after that in the Library of contemporary international documentation (BDIC) in Nanterre. He also held the position of a lecturer in the Departement of Political science at the University of Paris VIII (1993–1995) and at School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) (1994–1997). In 1995 he was hired by the University of Picardie Jules Verne in Amiens as an assistant professor. He was later promoted to full professor, a post he held from 2009 to 2013, when he joined the faculty at Cornell. In 2014, he was awarded the Premio Pozzale Luigi Russo and in 2016, the Huésped de Honor Extraordinario, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, in recognition of his historical scholarship.

Works

Original works

English translations