Saskia Sassen   [1947]

Professor Sassen is a famous researcher of large cities such as her home city of NYC.

Specifically she studies cities, immigration, and states in the world economy, with inequality, gendering and digitization three key variables running though her work.

 She has a strong interest in and does research in “The analysis of globalization and human migration”. She has coined the term “Global City”. In addition to her current position at Columbia as the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, she is also the Centennial Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics.

She is widely published and has received nine honorary degrees. They are: from Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands [2004], DePaul University, Chicago, University de Poitiers, France, Royal Stockholm Technical University, Ghent University, Belgium, Warwick University, England, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, Universidad de Murcia in Spain [2014],  Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, France [2014].

She also received honorary awards. Among others are: The 2013 Principe de Asturias Prize in Social Sciences, the Royal Academy of Sciences in  the Netherlands, and the Chevalier d’Ordre des Arts et Lettres, by French government.

Professor Sassen did her undergraduate work at the University at Poitiers in France, the Universita Degli Studi di Roma in Italy, the University of Buenos Ayres in Argentina and Notre Dame University, from which she earned a BS degree in Sociology and Economics in 1969. Her graduate work was done at Notre Dame University in the USA, from where she received her MA degree in 1971 and a PhD degree in Sociology in 1974.

Following her doctoral work she was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University. From there she moved to the University of Chicago where she rose to the Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology. From there she moved to Columbia University where she currently is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology.

Professor Sassen is married to Professor Richard Sennett who holds an appointment in Economics at New York University. She also had a previous marriage which produced her son, Artist Hilary-Koob Sassen.

I heard a lecture by Professor Sassen at the Chautauqua Institution during the 2016 Summer Season. She lectured on the transfer of high priced real estate to major investors in New York City but also in many other large cities such as London, Tokyo and numerous others. The real estate was accumulated as investment but in most cases was seldom used by the owners.

The investments were essentially ways to “park” excess” money in valuable real estate. This practice is causing the thinning of the population in the areas affected, and in many cases negatively affecting the livability for the remaining residents still living in these properties.

Professor Sassen’s parents were Willem Sassen and Miep vander Voorst. Her father had quite a notoriety as a collaborator with the Nazis in the Netherlands and Belgium during the Second World War. He served in the Waffen SS during the war and was injured during his service on the Russian front. His injury may have saved his life because one third of all Dutch volunteers who fought for the Nazis on the Russian front never returned.

After his recovery from his injuries he served as a pro-Nazi journalist in both Belgium and the Netherlands. He was arrested following the war for his Nazi collaboration but managed to escape and then travel to Ireland. From there he found transportation on a freighter to Argentina where he lived as a refugee. As a result Professor Sassen lived in Argentina before her college studies in France Italy and the U.S. She was born in The Hague, the Netherlands on January 5, 1947.

Professor Sassen has published eight books and edited three books. She also published numerous academic papers and book chapters as well as articles for the popular press. Six of her books are:

“The Global City, New York, London and Tokyo”, Princeton University Press, 1991, 2001.

“The Mobility of Labor and Capital: A Study in International Investment and Labor Flow”, Cambridge University Press, 1988.

“Cities in a World Economy”, Pine Forge Press, 1994, 2011.

“Losing Control? Sovereignty in an Age of Globalization”, Columbia University Press, 1996.

“Territory, Authority and Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages”, Princeton University Press, 2006.

In addition to the above she has also published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in academic journals. She has also published numerous articles in the popular press such as in The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, Die Zeit, The Financial Times and other outlets.

Professor Sassen is fluent in Spanish, Italian and French, and good in Dutch and German.  

REFERENCES

C.V. provided by Professor Sassen

Columbia University web site

Sources found on web

 

E-BOOKS AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON; GOOGLE: Kindle Store Pegels

 

PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICANS, CURRENT AND HISTORIC

EIGHT PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICAN FAMILIES: THE ROOSEVELTS, VANDERBILTS AND OTHERS, 2015

FIFTEEN PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICAN FAMILIES: THE VAN BURENS, KOCH BROTHERS, VOORHEES AND OTHERS, 2015

PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICANS IN U.S. GOVERNMENT LEADERSHIP POSITIONS, 2015

 

DUTCH PEGELS INVOLVED IN WARS

ALLIED EUROPE CAMPAIGN—1944/1945: TACTICAL MISTAKES, 2017

THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN THE NETHERLANDS: MEMOIRS, 2017

FRENCH REVOLUTION, NAPOLEON AND RUSSIAN WAR OF 1812, 2015