The Contemporary History Institute hosts Dr. Ran Zwigenberg discussing his book “ Nuclear Minds: Cold War Psychological Science and the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on March 5 at 4:45 p.m. in Bentley Hall 129.

Zwigenberg holds the positions of Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Jewish Studies and Director of Graduate Studies at Pennsylvania State University. Zwigenberg’s research focuses on modern Japanese and European history, with a specialization in memory and intellectual history. He has taught and lectured in the United States, Europe, Israel, and Japan, and published on issues of war memory, heritage, atomic energy, psychiatry, and survivor politics. 

His first book, Hiroshima: The Origins of Global Memory Culture , was the winner of the 2016 Association for Asian Studies’ John W. Hall book award. His second, co-authored book, Japan’s Castles: Citadels of Modernity in War and Peace , came out in 2019. His latest book, Nuclear Minds , published in July 2023 by The University of Chicago Press, traces how researchers understood the atomic bomb’s effects on the human psyche before the recognition of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

This event is free and open to the public.