Ben Mercer

Ben Mercer is a Lecturer at the School of History, Australian National University. He holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and previously taught at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York. His research focuses on post-WWII Western European history, particularly the 1960s-1970s era in France, West Germany, and Italy.

Mercer's intellectual interests center on the relationship between different forms of social, political and cultural change, including the history of reading, consumerism, the university system, democratic practices, and political uses of historical narratives. He serves as President of the Australasian Association for European History (2019-2023).

His publications primarily consist of literature reviews examining historical scholarship on European social movements and political transformations. Recent works analyze transnational history methodologies and historical perspectives on contemporary political phenomena.