Andreas Wimmer is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research is aimed at understanding the dynamics of nation-state formation, ethnic boundary making and political conflict from a comparative perspective. He is the author of Nationalist Exclusion and Ethnic Conflict: Shadows of Modernity (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and his articles have been published by the American Journal of Sociology, the American Sociological Review, World Politics, Sociological Theory and Ethnic and Racial Studies, among others. Professor Wimmer's work has won best article awards from the Comparative Historical, Political, Cultural and Theory sections of the American Sociological Association as well as the Thyssen Prize for Best Article in the Social Sciences.