Simone Lässig is Director of the German Historical Institute, Washington and Professor of Modern History at the University of Braunschweig. Her first book, a study of the campaign for electoral reform in Saxony, won the 1996 Horst Springer Prize. In 2004, the German Historical Association awarded her its biennial prize for the best second book (Habilitationsschrift, 2003) for her study of the embourgeoisement of German Jewry. Her research currently focuses on modern Jewish history, the history of knowledge, migration history, and digital history.