William Safran (born 1930) is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Colorado Boulder.
It has been argued that Safran "has contributed substantially to the body of knowledge regarding ethnic politics, nationalism, and related subjects, such as institutional and cultural pluralism, citizenship, immigration, diaspora, national identity, and the politics of language and religion".
[1] Safran was born in Dresden, Germany, to Romanian and Polish immigrant parents.
After liberation, he spent four months in a United Nations displaced persons camp.
[1] He subsequently gained a BA degree in history and an MA in international affairs from City College of New York, served for two years in the US army, and gained a PhD in public law and government from Columbia University, under the supervision of Otto Kirchheimer, in 1964.