There is a beer topography chart on the door. Dr. Ethan Hollander is shy about his interests. His primary interest though is political science.
Hollander is one of five new tenure track professors. He takes the spot soon to be vacated by Dr. Phil Mikesell.
Hollander sees himself as a scientist, and believes that “the most interesting area where you can practice the scientific method is politics and groups of people as a collective,” he said. “I like the interaction between the classroom and the experience in the real world. In my opinion, these two areas coincide more in the discipline of political science than any other.”
Hollander, who received his Bachelor of the Arts at Wesleyan University and his Master of the Arts and doctorate at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is leaving his position as a post-doctorate teacher at UCSD for his first tenure track position, here at the College. As evidenced by his dissertation at UCSD, “Swords or Shields? Implementing and Subverting the Final Solution in Nazi-occupied Europe,” which included an interview with Maurice Papon, the French governor convicted of war crimes after World War II, Hollander focuses much of his work in gray areas.
The dissertation includes Papon’s controversial decision to deport 1500 Jews from France to appease Hitler’s Final Solution. When brought before a war crimes trial, Papon’s defense was that Hitler asked him for 10,000 Jews.
“The point isn’t whether or not he is telling the truth. We can’t know. What’s interesting is thinking, what if he was telling the truth? If so, does it become moral to kill 1500 people to save 8500?”
Hollander’s thesis is controversial because it suggests that Nazi Germany’s allies offered better havens for people of Jewish descent than countries who opposed Hitler’s rule.
“Italy is the classic case,” Hollander said. “80 percent of the Jews in that area survived the Holocaust. But then take the Netherlands, who opposed Hitler, but were invaded by Germany and lost many Jews in the process.
“Here is the moral quandary. You can either defy Hitler, which is the right thing to do, at the expense of your Jewish citizens, which is wrong. On the other hand, you can support the Nazis, which is wrong, but keep your Jewish citizens safer in the process, which is the right thing to do. It’s a sticky moral question.”
Hollander’s thesis pours out into his political philosophy as well.
“Politics is the process by which groups of people act and make decisions,” Hollander said. “Let’s say we have friends going out to eat at a restaurant, but they can’t decide where to go. One half wants to go here, the other half wants to go there. Neither option is necessarily the right one. The process by which they compromise and decide where to go is politics.”
Students enrolling in Hollander’s classes, Comparative Politics and Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict, should expect an unorthodox classroom experience.
“I want these things to be genuinely interesting,” Hollander said. ‘If you aren’t interested in the material, then you won’t be inspired to take it seriously.”
Hollander claims that he only assigns readings he himself finds interesting, avoiding what he calls the “meat and potatoes” approach of giving students stock material that is considered necessary for learning purposes.
Also, Hollander leaves the last two or three weeks of his syllabus blank. This way he can use the remaining few weeks of the semester discussing current events.
In addition to providing a fresh, invigorating approach to political science, Hollander will also be joining the Brewing Society, himself being a brewer of beer.
“I started out with yogurt, since I didn’t like store bought yogurt,” Hollander explained. “Eventually, I moved my way up and began brewing my own beer. I also started the beer club at UCSD with two students. The place is more politically correct, so we couldn’t put ‘beer’ in the title. So we called it the Hops and Malt Club.”
“Beer is the oldest fermented beverage, “he added adoringly, “and it’s such a simple process. You boil grains, they release starch, and you add yeast that eats the starch. The yeast piss alcohol and fart carbon dioxide, and then you have a carbonated alcoholic beverage.”
The topography chart on his office door explains the range of beers that can be produced. Speaking with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, Hollander explained that beer could be held accountable for the beginnings of civilization and politics.
“You have grain, which has tons of calories and can feed lots of people. Now, making grain edible is a time-consuming process, unless you decide to put it in water and let it ferment. Making beer is much easier than making bread, and as the culture shifted from hunting/gathering to agriculture, so too did the political structure of man. “
In addition to brewing beer, Hollander runs and hikes, as well as making pottery. The Miami Beach native also once counted windsurfing among his hobbies, before moving to San Diego where the water was too cold and the Midwest where there is no water. Hollander humorously recalled that before his dive into the world of political science he used to skip his government class in high school and windsurf with friends.