Ieva Zake is currently an Associate Dean of College of Science and Mathematics at Rowan University, USA. She is a professor of sociology and an author of numerous articles and 4 books, including, “American Latvians: Politics of a Refugee Community” (Transaction, 2010). Her research interests include study of ethnic identity, nationalism, intellectuals, the Cold War, collective memory and immigration.
Ieva Zake holds a BA in Philosophy from University of Latvia, a MA in Women’s Studies from the Ohio State University and a PhD in Sociology from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Since 2004, she is a professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Rowan University. Two years ago, she began serving as an Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and, now, the College of Science and Mathematics. Her research has developed from interest in development of Latvian nationalist ideology, to ethnicity and gender in post-communist context to analyses of Eastern European émigrés in post-World War II United States. Her articles such as “Anti-Communist White Ethnics in Search of True Americanness: Ideas and Alliances in the 1950s-1970s,” “Republican Ethnic Politics in the late 1960s and early 1970s: Nixon vs. GOP,” “Soviet Campaigns against ‘Capitalist Ideological Subversives’ during the Cold War: the Latvian Experience,” “Controversies of US-USSR Cultural Contacts during the Cold War: the Perspective of Latvian Refugees” and “Inventing Culture and Nation: Intellectuals and the Early Latvian Nationalism” have been published in such venues as Journal of American Studies, Polish American Studies, Journal of Cold War Studies, Journal of Baltic Studies, Journal of Historical Sociology and National Identities. She is also an author of a number of books, including, two edited volumes “New Directions in Sociology: Essays on Theory and Methodology in the 21st Century” (McFarland Publishing, 2011) and “Anti-Communist Minorities in the US: Political Activism of Ethnic Refugees” (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2009), and a monograph “American Latvians: Politics of a Refugee Community” (Transaction, 2010). Her most current research focuses on the organization and control of international tourism to the USSR (specifically, “ethnic” tourism to Latvian SSR) and the role of ethnic minorities in American post-World War II politics.