Matthew G. Specter Assistant Professor of History Office: 208-003 Department of History 208 DiLoreto Hall Central Connecticut State University 1615 Stanley Street New Britain, CT 06050 Phone: (860) 832-2867 Fax: (860) 832-2804 Email: spectermat@ccsu.edu

Areas of Specialization: Intellectual and Cultural History, Modern Europe, Germany

Matthew Specter received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Brown University in 1991. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University in 1999 and 2005 respectively. He has held fellowships from the American Council on Germany, the International Research Center for Cultural Studies in Vienna, and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Prior to his arrival at CCSU, he was Term Professor and Postdoctoral Fellow at George Mason University.

His teaching interests include intellectual and cultural history, German history, the history of human rights and humanitarianism. His research focuses on traditions of political, legal and social theory in modern Europe and modern Germany, especially concerning the nature of liberal democracy and international world order. He is currently completing a book manuscript, entitled Jürgen Habermas: An Intellectual Biography, which analyzes how the Federal Republic of Germany's leading philosopher responded to the major political and intellectual challenges to democracy in the postwar period, and reshaped its political culture.
 

Selected publications:

• "Habermas's Political Thought, 1984-1996: A Historical Interpretation," Modern Intellectual History 6, no. 1 (April 2009): 91-119.