Biography

Dr. Peck brings a wealth of scholarly and administrative experience to the position of WSAS Dean and his recently earned position of Vice Provost for Global Strategies. He is a scholar whose work explores the complex and ambiguous relationship between German and Jewish culture. Dr. Peck has taught at several universities in both the U.S. and Canada and has held the Walter Benjamin Chair in German-Jewish Culture and History at Humboldt University in Berlin, where he was also the Founding Director of the Leo Baeck Summer University in Jewish Studies. Dr. Peck was also a longtime Senior Fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS) in Washington DC, while he was a faculty member at Georgetown University. He has been the recipient of multiple Fulbright awards to Germany, as well as other fellowships.

Dr. Peck holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley (1979); a Master’s degree, also in Comparative Literature, from the University of Chicago (1974); and a Bachelor of Arts from Michigan State University (1972) in German, English and History. He is the author of numerous articles on German and Jewish studies and has also written extensively on identity and global cultural issues. As Dean, he has initiated a number of initiatives, including “Global Studies” and “Public Scholarship and Civic Engagement: The Liberal Arts in the World.” Dr. Peck’s books include Being Jewish in the New Germany (Rutgers University Press, 2006) and (with John Borneman) Sojourners. The Return of German Jews and the Question of Identity (Nebraska, 1995)