Jeffrey Olick is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and History at the University of Virginia.  He is Co-President of the Memory Studies Association (memorystudiesassociation.org) and an elected member of the Sociological Research Association.

Olick received a B.A. with High Honors from Swarthmore College (1986) and an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale (1993).  Before joining the faculty at UVa, Olick was a member of the sociology department faculty at Columbia University in New York City for eleven years. 

Olick is a cultural and historical sociologist whose work has focused on collective memory and commemoration, critical theory, transitional justice, postwar Germany, and sociological theory more generally.  Recent and forthcoming books include a six-volume collection,  A Cultural History of Memory, edited with Stefan Berger (Bochum) (https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/a-cultural-history-of-memory-9781474273848/), as well as new translations and critical editions of two books by Maurice Halbwachs in collaboration with Sarah Daynes (UNC-Greensboro) (The Collective Memory and The Legendary Topography of the Gospels in the Holy Land).  Further work, together with Christina Simko (Williams College), includes developing the outlines of what they call “tragic sociology.” 

Olick frequently speaks at universities, conferences, and public forums around the world, and his work has been translated into Spanish, German, Polish, Turkish, Estonian, Hungarian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

Publications

Books

Regions of Memory: Transnational Formations
Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies; 1st ed. 2022 Edition

    A Cultural History of Memory Volumes 1-6
    Bloomsbury Academic, 2020

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  The Politics of Regret: On Collective Memory and Historical Responsibility
  Routledge, 2007.

• In the House of the Hangman: The Agonies of German Defeat,1943-1949
  University of Chicago Press, 2005.

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• The Sins of the Fathers: Germany, Memory, Method
  University of Chicago Press, 2016

• The Collective Memory Reader
  Edited with Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi and Daniel Levy
  Oxford University Press, 2011.

• Guilt and Defense: On the Legacies of National Socialism in Postwar Germany
  Theodor W. Adorno; Edited, translated, and introduced by Jeffrey K. Olick and Andrew J. Perrin
  Harvard University Press, 2010.

• Group Experiment and Other Writings: The Frankfurt School on Public Opinion in Postwar Germany
  Friedrich Pollock and Theodor W. Adorno; Edited, translated, and introduced by Jeffrey K. Olick and Andrew J. Perrin
  Harvard University Press, 2011.

• States of Memory: Continuities, Conflicts, and Transformations in National Retrospection
  Duke University Press, 2003.

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• Selected Articles

• "The Agonies of Defeat: 'Other Germanies' and the Problem of Collective Guilt"

  "Times for Forgiveness: An Historical Perspective," in Considering Forgiveness, edited by Aleksandra Wagner with Carin Kuoni. New York: Vera List Center for Art and Politics, 2009.

  "From Collective Memory to the Sociology of Mnemonic Practices and Products," in Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook, edited by Astrid Erll and Ansgar Nunning. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008.

  “The Ciphered Transits of Collective Memory: Neo-Freudian Impressions.” Social Research 75, 1, Spring 2008: 1-22.

  “Collective Memory: A Memoir and Prospect.” Memory Studies 1, 1, Winter 2008: 23-29.

  "Collective Memory." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd Ed.

  "Holocaust." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd Ed.

  "Political Sociology." International Enclyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd Ed.

  "Political Culture." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd Ed.

  "Popular Culture." Encyclopedia of Aesthetics.

  "Collective Memory and Nonpublic Opinion: An Historical Note on Methodological Controversy about a Political Problem." Symbolic Interaction, February 2007.

  "The Guilt of Nations?" Ethics and International Affairs, Fall 2003: 109-117.

  "Social Memory Studies: From 'Collective Memory' to the Historical Sociology of Mnemonic Practices," (with Joyce Robbins). Annual Review of Sociology 24, 1998: 105-140.