Nathaniel Berman is the Rahel Varnhagen Professor in Brown University's Religious Studies Department. The overarching theme in Berman's scholarship concerns the experiences of "otherness" in law, politics, and religion. For much of his career, Berman's scholarship focused on the construction of modern internationalism through its relationships to nationalism and colonialism. It identified early 20th century international law as one of the sites of the invention of cultural modernism. Berman's work on these issues has been broadly interdisciplinary, drawing on literary criticism, cultural studies, post-colonial theory, and religious studies. More recently, Berman's work has focused on the relationship between religion and legal and political discourse. For several years, he co-directed Brown's Religion and Internationalism Project, a joint venture between the Cogut Institute and Brown's Religious Studies Department.