William N. Safran University of Colorado-Boulder, USA

William Safran is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has also taught at City University of New York and at the Universities of Bordeaux, Grenoble, and Nice in France and Santiago de Compostela in Spain. He has written numerous articles on French and European politics and on national identity and related subjects. His recent books include The French Polity, 7th ed. (2009); Language, Ethnic Identity, and the State (2005); The Secular and the Sacred: Nation, Religion, and Politics (2002); and Identity and Territorial Autonomy in Plural Societies (2000). He is the founding editor of the journal Nationalism and Ethnic Politics and general editor of Routledge Studies in Nationalism and Ethnicity.