Degrees and University Education

2009, Dr. phil., University of Erfurt (summa cum laude)

2004, M.A., University of Erfurt

2002-2004, Graduate Studies, University of Erfurt and University of California at Berkeley (U.S. History and History of Everyday Life)

2002, B.A., University of Erfurt

1999-2002, Undergraduate Studies, University of Erfurt and Beloit College, WI (History and Communication Science)

 

Academic/Employment Carreer

2015 - current, Assistant Professor, History Department of the John F. Kenney Institute, Freie Universität Berlin

2014-2015, Visiting Scholar at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (DAAD P.R.I.M.E. Fellowship)

2013-2014, Post-doctoral Researcher at the Graduate School of North American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

2013, Teaching Position at the John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin

2011-2012, Research Associate, DFG Graduate School “Cultural Encounters and the Discourses of Scholarship,” University of Rostock

2004-2009, Research Associate for Historical Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Erfurt

2008, Academic advisor for GEOEpoche (Gruner & Jahr), Issue 33 “New York”

2005, Research for Kunda Kursachsen Fonden (Denmark) concerning forced labor compensations

1999-2004, Student Assistant, History Department, University of Erfurt (Prof. Dr. Alf Lüdtke & Prof. Dr. Ursula Lehmkuhl)

Governance/Administrative Positions

2015 - current, Committee work at the John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin

2013-2014, Elected Postdoc Spokesperson, Graduate School of North American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

2009-2010, Elected Graduate Student Spokesperson, Graduate School “Cultural Encounters and the Discourses of Scholarship,” University of Rostock

2002-2003, Elected Student Representative to the Academic Senate, University of Erfurt

2001-2002, Elected Student Representative to the Governing Board, University of Erfurt

Fellowships and Research Grants

2014-2015, DAAD P.R.I.M.E Fellowship, research stay at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

2012-2015, Member of the Research Network “The History of Everyday Life in a Transnational Perspective” (founded by the German Research Foundation)

2009-2012, Post-doctoral Fellowship, Graduate School “Cultural Encounter and Discourses of Scholarship,” Rostock

2010-2012, Post-doctoral Fellowship for North-American History, German Historical Institute, Washington, DC

2010, Visiting Scholar, History Department, New York University

2009, Doctoral Scholarship, University of Erfurt

2007, Fulbright American Studies Summer Institute, San Francisco

Research Grant, John F. Kennedy Institute, Berlin

2006, Doctoral Fellowship, German Historical Institute, Washington, DC

2003, Graduate Studies Research Grant of the German Academic Exchange Service (research in Berkeley, CA)

Organization of Conferences/Exhibits

2019, Conference Culture and International History VI, "Visions of Humanity," Berlin (organized with Jessica Gienow-Hecht and Sönke Kunkel)

2017-2018, Lecture Series, “Histories of Resistance,” Berlin

2014, "Doing Knowledge," Berlin (workshop organized with Philipp Müller)

2013-2014, “Interdisciplinary Forum,” Berlin (lecture series organized with Thomas Dikant, Anne Nassauer, Simon Schleusener and Boris Vormann)

2012, “Mobility and Everyday Life,” Rostock (workshop in cooperation with Philipp Müller)

2011, “Uncertain Knowledge: Practices and Discourses of (Non-)Affirmation in 19th- and 20th-century American History,” Washington, DC (conference in cooperation with Bruce Dorsey and Olaf Stieglitz)

2008, “’The right to vote’: Wählen und Wahlen in der US- amerikanischen Geschichte,” Erfurt (student conference in cooperation with Jürgen Martschukat)

“Everyday Life in Transnational Perspective: Alltagsgeschichte Revisited,” Erfurt (conference in cooperation with Jürgen Martschukat et al.)

2007/2008, “Migration and Practices of Identity,” Erfurt (lecture series in cooperation with Claudia Kraft, Melanie Henne und Nora Kreuzenbeck)

2007, “Histories: Unsettling and Unsettled,” Erfurt (conference organized in cooperation with Alf Lüdtke)

2005, “Provincializing Europe? Potential and Pitfalls of (Non-)Western Approaches to History,” Erfurt (conference organized in cooperation with Alf Lüdtke)

2003-2004, “Ausnahmezustand: Der 17. Juni in Erfurt,” Stadtmuseum Erfurt (exhibit organized in cooperation with other students and Alf Lüdtke)

Teaching Experience at the John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin

Summer Semester 2023: 

Independence Movements and Conflicts in North America - the US and Canada in Comparison, with David Bosold, Mondays, 10:00-12:00

Remembering and Forgetting in U.S. History: Monuments, Archives, and Narratives, Mondays, 12:00-14:00

MA Colloquium History, Mondays, 18:00-20:00

Winter Semester 2021/22

Undergraduate:

Understanding North America A, Fridays, 10:00-12:00, 14:00-16:00, Tutorium Wednesdays, 10:00-12:00, 14:00-16:00

Rituals and Performance in U.S. History, Mondays, 10:00-12:00

Winter Semester 2020/2021

Undergraduate

Understanding North America A, Fridays 10:00-12:00, 14:00-16:00, Tutorium Wednesdays 14:00-16:00, 16:00-18:00

Graduate:

Transatlantic Slave Trade, Mondays 10:00-12:00

Disciplinary Theory and Methods in the Study of History, Tuesdays 10:00-12:00

Summer Semester 2020

Undergraduate:

Bachelor Colloquium (Economics/History/Political Science/Sociology), Tuesdays 10:00-12:00

Graduate:

History of Manhood in America, Mondays 10:00-12:00

A History of the Body in Colonial America, Mondays 14:00-16:00

Winter Semester 2019/2020

Undergraduate:

Understanding North America A, Fridays: 10:00-12:00, 14:00-16:00

The Age of Revolution: Historical Sources of the American Early Republic, Mondays 10:00-12:00

Winter Semester 2018/2019

Undergraduate:

U.S. History as Gender History, Tuesdays 14:00-16:00

Graduate:

Imagery and Race, Mondays 14:00-16:00

Images of Slavery, Tuesdays 16:00-18:00

Summer Semester 2018

Disunion and Conflict in Early America, Tuesdays 12:00-14:00  

Slave Rebellions – Slave Resistance in North America, Tuesdays 14:00-16:00

Winter Semester 2017/2018

History of New York, Tuesdays 14:00-16:00

MA History Colloquium, Mondays, 16:00-18:00

Disciplinary Methods in the Study of History, Mondays, 14:00-16:00

Summer Semester 2017

Advanced Disciplinary Theory and Methods in the Study of History, Mondays, 12:00-14:00

Winter Semester 2016/2017

Understanding North America A, Fridays 10:00-12:00, 14:00-16:00

Summer Semester 2016

Introduction to American Slavery (1619-1865) (Seminar in BA North American Studies)

History of Manhood in America (Hauptseminar in MA North American Studies)

Winter Semester 2015/2016

Slave Trade in America and the Trans-Atlantic World (Hauptseminar in MA North American Studies)

Understanding North America (UNA) A (Vorlesung and Tutorial in BA North American Studies)

2013

Bodies, Symbols, Rituals: a Performative Approach to American History (Hauptseminar im MA Nordamerikastudien)

University of Rostock

2010

Between Rituals and Symbols: Practices of Performance in American History (Proseminar im BA-Programm Anglistik/Amerikanistik)

 

University of Erfurt

2008

Lektüreseminar: Methoden und Theorien der Geschichtswissenschaft (Seminar im BA-Programm Geschichtswissenschaft / Lehramtsstudiengang)

Wählen und Wahlen in der US-amerikanischen Geschichte (Hauptseminar im MA-Programm Geschichtswissenschaft, gemeinsam mit Prof. Dr. Jürgen Martschukat)

2007

Kriegserfahrungen und Kriegserinnerungen: der Vietnamkrieg (Integriertes Proseminar im BA-Programm Geschichtswissenschaft)

Histories: Unsettling and Unsettled (Hauptseminar im MA-Programm Geschichtswissenschaft, gemeinsam mit Prof. Dr. Alf Lüdtke)

2006

Historische Anthropologie: Konzepte, Probleme, Perspektiven (Hauptseminar im MA-Programm Geschichtswissenschaft, gemeinsam mit Dr. Philipp Müller)

Symbole, Rituale, Performanzen: US-amerikanische Praktiken von Inszenierung (Hauptseminar im BA-Programm Geschichtswissenschaft / Lehramtsstudiengang)

2005

Siegen und Verlieren. US-amerikanische und deutsche Perspektiven nach 1945 (Übung im BA-Programm Geschichtswissenschaft / Lehramtsstudiengang)

Herrschaft, Partizipation, Kommunikation: Handeln im öffentlichen Raum (Integriertes Proseminar im BA-Programm Geschichtswissenschaft)

„Techniker der Endlösung“: (Mit-)Täter im lokalen Kontext; das Beispiel Topf & Söhne, Erfurt (Hauptseminar im MA-Programm Geschichtswissenschaft, gemeinsam mit Prof. Dr. Alf Lüdtke)

2004

Erinnern, Vergessen, Gedenken - Beispiele aus den USA und Deutschland (Übung im BA-Programm Geschichtswissenschaft / Lehramtsstudiengang)

Research Areas

• U.S. cultural history
• African American history
• History of slavery
• History of everyday-life, practices
• Theories of historical remembrance and memory, history and ‘performative turn,’ postcolonial studies.

In my research I am interested in Cultural History, the History of Everyday Life as well as in Theories of History. In my previous projects I have worked on political and social performances in American history. Furthermore, I have published on the influence of postcolonial studies on current historiography. My current project focuses on the role of rumors of slave revolts in the antebellum South.

 

Monographs

Welcome Home Boys! Military Victory Parades in New York City 1899-1946, Frankfurt/Main: Campus 2012. [also published with University of Chicago Press 2013]

 

Edited Volumes & Journal Issues

Visions of Humanity: the History of a Powerful Concept, ed. Jessica Gienow-Hecht and Sönke Kunkel [forthcoming].

Ed. with Elissa Mailänder, Arbeit Transnational (Special Issue), WerkstattGeschichte 70 (Sciences Po Paris: May 2016).

Symposium: Uncertain Knowledge, in: Rethinking History 18 (2014), No. 1.

Agents of Transculturation: Boder-Crossers, Mediators, Go-Betweens, ed. with Gesa Mackenthun, Münster: Waxmann, 2013.

Embodiments of Cultural Encounters, ed. with Gesa Mackenthun, Münster: Waxmann, 2011.

Unsettling History: Archiving and Narrating in Historiography, ed. with Alf Lüdtke, Frankfurt/Main: Campus, 2010. [also published with University of Chicago Press 2010]

Ausnahmezustand. Der 17. Juni 1953 in Erfurt, Erfurt 2004, ed. with other students and Alf Lüdtke, Erfurt, 2004.

 

Articles & Book Chapters

“The Other ‘Faithful Servant’ – Uncertainty and Trust during Gabriel’s Conspiracy in Virginia, 1800” [forthcoming]

“What I learned from Working with Rumors – a Historian’s Perspective” [forthcoming].

“»Alarming Plots«: Spuren einer Sklavenverschwörung im amerikanischen Süden, 1802,” in: Comparativ 28
(2018), No. 3, 73–89.

“Widerstand und Affirmation – Schwarze Kirchen und Abolitionismus in den USA,” in: Deutsches Historisches
Museum (ed.), Der Luthereffekt. 500 Jahre Protestantismus in der Welt, München 2017, 176-184.

“An Act for the Bettering of Negroes and Slaves (1712) Oder: Keinen Zweifel lassen,” in: Jürgen Martschukat &
Olaf Stieglitz (eds), race & sex: Eine Geschichte der Neuzeit, Berlin: Neofelis 2016, 377-383.

“Editorial, Arbeit: Begrenzen – Entgrenzen, Beiträge zu einer transnationalen Alltagsgeschichte,” in:
WerkstattGeschichte 70 (2016), 3–6 [with Elissa Mailänder]. [peer-reviewed]

“Unsicheres Wissen und Gewalt – Der Sklavenaufstand von Camden 1816 und Praktiken der Vergewisserung im US-amerikanischen Süden,” in: Historische Anthropologie 22 (2014), No. 3, 313-331.

“Uncertain Knowledge,” in: Rethinking History 18 (2014), No. 1, 2-9.

“Introduction,” in: Agents of Transculturation: Boder-Crossers, Mediators, Go-Betweens, ed. with Gesa Mackenthun, Münster: Waxmann, 2013, 7-22.

“Shiny Happy Warfare – New York Victory Parades and the (In)Visibility of Violence,“ in: Jürgen Martschukat & Silvan Niedermeier (eds.), Violence and Visibility in Modern History, New York: Palgrave, 2013, 223-240.

“Introduction,” in: Embodiments of Cultural Encounters, ed. with Gesa Mackenthun, Münster: Waxmann, 2011, 7-20.

“‘As well drilled as Uncle Sam could hope’ – die Siegesparade der ‘Harlem Hellfighters’ als Arena afroamerikanischer Identitätspraktiken,” in: WerkstattGeschichte 54 (2010), 27-38.

(with Alf Lüdtke), “Unsettling History: Introduction,” in: Unsettling History: Archiving and Narrating in Historiography, ed. with Alf Lüdtke, Frankfurt/Main: Campus, 2010, 7-25.

“Die Geschichte New Yorks,” in: GEOEpoche 33 (2008), 172-177.

 

Encyclopedia Articles

“Sklaverei und Sklavenhandel,” in: Online-Dossier Postkolonialismus und Globalgeschichte, Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung (Hg.), http://www.bpb.de/internationales/weltweit/219137/sklaverei-und-sklavenhandel.

“American Dream,” “John F. Kennedy,” “Martin Luther King” & “New York City,” in: Metzler Lexikon Moderne Mythen, ed. Juliane Ebert & Stephanie Wodianka, Stuttgart: Metzler, 2014.

Reviews and Conference Reports

Guido Abbattista (ed.), Encountering Otherness. Diversities and Transcultural Experiences in Early Modern European Cultures, in: Revista Hispania LXXIV (2014), 592-596 (book review).

Narrating Southern History: Michael L. Nicholls, Whispers of Rebellion. Narrating Gabriel’s Conspiracy & Jason Phillips (ed.), Storytelling, History, and the Postmodern South, in: http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/2014-1-181, published 03/13/2014 (book review).

Sue Armitage and Laurie Mercier, Speaking History: Oral Histories of the American Past, 1865-present, in: http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/2010-3-098, published 08/10/2010 (book review).

Margot Canaday, The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America, in: http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/2010-1-074, published 01/29/2010 (book review).

Barbara Lüthi, Invading Bodies: Medizin und Immigration in den USA 1880-1920, in: WerkstattGeschichte 53 (2009), p. 119-120. (book review).

Embodiments of Cultural Contact, in: http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/tagungsberichte/id=2897, 12/11/2009 (conference report)

Carol Acton, Grief in wartime. Private pain, public discourse, in: http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/2008-1-123, published 02/13/2008 (book review).

Anke Köth Anna Minta & Andreas Schwarting (eds.), Building America. Die Erschaffung einer neuen Welt, in: http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/2007-3-038, published 07/16/2007 (book review)

Das Bild der ‘eigenen’ Geschichte im Spiegel des kolonialen ‘Anderen’. Internationale Perspektiven um 1900, in: http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/tagungsberichte/id=1453, published 01/17/2007 (conferencereport with Nora Kreuzenbeck)

 

Translations

Abdulkarim Soroush, “Abhandlung über die Toleranz - Aufsatz geschrieben für die Praemium Erasmianum Stiftung zur Verleihung des Erasmus Preises, Amsterdam, November 2004,” in: SOWI 34.2 (2005), 66-77 (translation in cooperation with Tilman Lüdke).

Mehrzad Boroujerdi, “Die Reformbewegung in Iran - Erfahrungen und Beobachtungen in einem Vierteljahrhundert Islamischer Republik,” in: SOWI 34.2 (2005), 37-44 (translation in cooperation with Tilman Lüdke).