Immanuel Wallerstein was Senior Research Fellow in Sociology at Yale from 2000 until his death in 2019. From 1976 to 1999, he was Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University (SUNY), where he founded and directed the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems, and Civilizations. From 1975 until his death he spent part of every year at the Maison des sciences de l'homme in Paris. Wallerstein was recognized for his brilliance the world over. His many books and countless articles have been translated into dozens of languages. Of them, his world-renowned four-volume history of The Modern World-System is a masterful examination of the Western world from 1500 to the modern era. He is now and will be for time to come considered by many to be the most influential social scientist of his era.

Katharine Wallerstein, PhD, is an independent scholar and associate researcher at Centre de recherche sur les arts et le langage, EHESS. She is the director of the Paris-based Wallerstein Institute for World Futures.