Sabrina Petra Ramet (born June 26, 1949) is an American academic, educator, editor and journalist. She specializes in Eastern European history and politics and is a Professor of Political Science at the
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...
.
In 2008, the historian
Dejan Djokić referred to her as "undoubtedly the most prolific scholar of the former Yugoslavia writing in English".
[
]
Personal life
Assigned male at birth, Sabrina Ramet was born in London, and is of Austrian and Spanish descent. She moved to the United States at age 10. She became a US citizen in 1966 at age 17. She served in the United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...
from 1971 to 1975 and was stationed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. While stationed in Germany, she worked for the base newspaper, as a staff writer and later as editor. In 1973, she was a sergeant.
In December 1990, she started living as a woman and began using the name Sabrina. Ramet lived in England, Austria, Germany, Croatia, and Serbia before joining the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 2001, when she settled in Norway. She continues to travel for her research in Eastern European history and politics, in Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Poland.
Education
Ramet was educated at Stanford University (A.B., 1971), the University of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...
(M.A., 1974), and University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...
(UCLA). She earned her PhD from UCLA in 1981.
Career and major publications
In addition to the current position as professor of political science at Norwegian University of Science and Technology since 2001, Ramet is also a senior associate at the Centre for the Study of Civil War as well as a research associate at the Science and Research Centre in Koper, Slovenia. She has written more than 90 journal articles and contributed chapters to various scholarly collections. She is the author of 12 scholarly books and has been editor of 35 scholarly books. She writes in her native English, but her books appear in Bulgarian, Danish, German, Italian, Japanese, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Serbocroatian, Slovenian, and Spanish. Her translation of Viktor Meier's book, ''Wie Jugoslawien verspielt wurde'', was published by Routledge in July 1999 in English as ''Yugoslavia: A History of Its Demise''.
One of Ramet's early books, ''Whose Democracy? Nationalism, Religion, and the Doctrine of Collective Rights in Post-1989 Eastern Europe'' (1997), was reviewed in ''Terrorism and Political Violence
''Terrorism and Political Violence'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering terrorism and counter-terrorism published by Routledge. It was established in 1989 by David C. Rapoport (University of California, Los Angeles), who remains editor- ...
''. Her 2006 book, ''The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building and Legitimation, 1918–2005'', was reviewed in ''The American Historical Review
''The American Historical Review'' is a quarterly academic history journal and the official publication of the American Historical Association. It targets readers interested in all periods and facets of history and has often been described as the ...
'', '' Foreign Affairs'', ''East European Politics and Societies
''East European Politics and Societies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that covers the field of political science, especially concerning international relations of Eastern Europe. The journal's editors-in-chief are Wendy Bracewell (University ...
'' and ''The Journal of Modern History
''The Journal of Modern History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering European intellectual, political, and cultural history, published by the University of Chicago Press. Established in 1929, the journal covers events from appr ...
''. In 2008, historian Dejan Djokic called Ramet "undoubtedly the most prolific scholar of the former Yugoslavia writing in English".[
]
Debate
In 2007, Serbian sociologist, historian and writer, Aleksa Đilas, sparked a debate between himself and two authors, Ramet and John R. Lampe, by publishing a critique
Critique is a method of disciplined, systematic study of a written or oral discourse. Although critique is commonly understood as fault finding and negative judgment,Rodolphe Gasché (2007''The honor of thinking: critique, theory, philosophy''p ...
of "the academic West" in general, and Ramet's ''Thinking About Yugoslavia'' and Lampe's ''Balkans into Southeastern Europe'' books in particular.
In response professors Lampe and Ramet published a rebuttal of Đilas' critique in the same ''Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans'' publication, in which both authors addressed his claims, while Ramet disputed his characterizations.
Memberships
*Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters
The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters ( da, Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab, DKNVS) is a Norwegian learned society based in Trondheim. It was founded in 1760 and is Norway's oldest scientific and scholarly institution. The ...
(since 2002)
*Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway.
History
The Royal Frederick Unive ...
(2009)Member listing of DNVA Group 7: social studies
, Dnva.no, retrieved 2017-01-05.
Selected bibliography
*''Nationalism and Federalism in Yugoslavia, 1963-1983'' (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1984)
*''Nationalism and Federalism in Yugoslavia, 1962-1991'', 2nd edition (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1992)
*''Cross and Commissar: The Politics of Religion in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union'' (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1987)
*''The Soviet-Syrian Relationship since 1955: A Troubled Alliance'' (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990)
*''Social Currents in Eastern Europe: The Sources and Meaning of the Great Transformation (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1991); 2nd ed. 1995
*''Balkan Babel: Politics, Culture, and Religion in Yugoslavia'' (Boulder, Coloroado: Westview Press, 1992)
*
*''Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to Ethnic War'', 2nd edition (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1996)
*''Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to the War for Kosovo'', 3rd edition (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999)
*''Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to the Fall of Milosevic,'' 4th edition (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2002): also published in Croatian and Macedonian translations
*''Whose Democracy? Nationalism, Religion, and the Doctrine of Collective Rights in Post-1989 Eastern Europe'' (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997) — named an Outstanding Academic Book for 1997 by ''Choice'' magazine
*''Nihil Obstat: Religion, Politics, and Social Change in East-Central Europe and Russia'' (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1998)
*
*''The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building and Legitimation, 1918—2005'' (Bloomington, Indiana & Washington D.C.: Indiana University Press & The Wilson Center Press, 2006): also published in Croatian and German translations
*''Rellgija i politika u vremenu promene: Katolicka i pravoslavne crkve u centralnoj i jugoistocnoj Evropi'' (Belgrade: Centar za zenske studije i istrazivanja roda, 2006)
*''The Liberal Project & the Transformation of Democracy: The Case of East Central Europe'' (College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 2007)
*''Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia at Peace and at War: Selected Writings, 1983—2007'' (Berlin & Münster: Lit Verlag, 2008)
*''The Catholic Church in Polish History: From 966 to the present'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramet, Sabrina Petra
1949 births
Living people
American expatriate academics
American editors
American women journalists
American expatriates in Norway
American expatriates in Slovenia
British emigrants to the United States
American LGBT writers
English LGBT writers
Norwegian LGBT writers
Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Norwegian University of Science and Technology faculty
Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters
Stanford University alumni
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
United States Air Force non-commissioned officers
University of Arkansas alumni
Historians of the Balkans
Transgender women
Transgender writers
Transgender military personnel
Transgender academics
American women academics
American people of Austrian descent
American people of Spanish descent