William Safran, an American academic and Holocaust survivor and professor emeritus of political science at the University of Colorado Boulder, died on February 2, 2026.
Born in Dresden, Germany, on July 8, 1930, to Romanian and Polish immigrant parents, he spent more than three years in a ghetto, forced-labor camp and concentration camp under the Nazi regime. After liberation, he was in a United Nations displaced persons camp before moving to the United States in 1946 with surviving family members.
Safran specialized in France and wrote on ethnic politics, nationalism, institutional and cultural pluralism, citizenship, immigration, diaspora, national identity, and the politics of language and religion. He was editor-in-chief of Nationalism and Ethnic Politics from its founding in 1995 until 2010.
William Safran (July 8, 1930 – January 22, 2026) was an American academic and Holocaust survivor who was professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. It has been argued that Safran “has contributed substantially to the body of knowledge regarding ethnic politics, nationalism, and related subjects, such as institutional and cultural pluralism, citizenship, immigration, diaspora, national identity, and the politics of language and religion”. He was a specialist on France, and much of his research concerned French ethnic politics.