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 - present	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 - present	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	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 2025

Undergraduate:

Migration in American History, Sebastian Jobs, Mondays, 12:00-14:00

Graduate:

History of the Body in Colonial America, Sebastian Jobs, Tuesdays, 10:00-12:00

Diseases in Early America, Sebastian Jobs, Tuesdays, 12:00-14:00

Winter Semester 2023/24

Undergraduate:

History of Slavery in North America, Sebastian Jobs, Mondays, 10:00-12:00

Depictions of Slavery in U.S. History, Sebastian Jobs, Mondays, 12:00-14:00

Graduate:

The U.S. in the Global 1960s: Forms of Protest and Resistance, Sebastian Jobs, Tuesdays, 10:00-12:00

Summer Semester 2023

Graduate:

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

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

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

Winter Semester 2021/22

Undergraduate:

Understanding North America A, Ulla Haselstein, Sebastian Jobs, and Alexander Starre, Fridays, 10:00-12:00 & 14:00-16:00

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

Winter Semester 2020/2021

Undergraduate:

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

Graduate:

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

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

Summer Semester 2020

Undergraduate:

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

Graduate:

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

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

Winter Semester 2019/2020

Undergraduate:

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

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

Winter Semester 2018/2019

Undergraduate:

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

Graduate:

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

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

Summer Semester 2018

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

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

Winter Semester 2017/2018

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

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

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

Summer Semester 2017

Advanced Disciplinary Theory and Methods in the Study of History, Sebastian Jobs, 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

Undergraduate:

Introduction to American Slavery (1619-1865)

Graduate:

History of Manhood in America

Winter Semester 2015/2016

Undergraduate:

Understanding North America A

Graduate:

Slave Trade in America and the Trans-Atlantic World

2013

Graduate:

Bodies, Symbols, Rituals: A Performative Approach to American History

 

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

Sebastian Jobs. 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

Jessica Gienow Hecht, Sönke Kunkel, and Sebastian Jobs, eds. Visions of Humanity: The History of a Powerful Concept [forthcoming].

Sebastian Jobs and Elissa Mailänder, eds. Arbeit Transnational (Special Issue). WerkstattGeschichte 70 (Sciences Po Paris: May 2016).

Sebastian Jobs. Uncertain Knowledge (symposium). Rethinking History 18 (2014), No. 1.

Sebastian Jobs and Gesa Mackenthun, eds. Agents of Transculturation: Boder-Crossers, Mediators, Go-Betweens. Münster: Waxmann, 2013.

Sebastian Jobs and Gesa Mackenthun, eds. Embodiments of Cultural Encounters. Münster: Waxmann, 2011.

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

Sebastian Jobs, Alf Lüdtke, and students, eds. Ausnahmezustand. Der 17. Juni 1953 in Erfurt. Erfurt 2004.

 

Articles & Book Chapters

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

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

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

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

Sebastian Jobs. “An Act for the Bettering of Negroes and Slaves (1712) Oder: Keinen Zweifel lassen.” In Race and Sex: Eine Geschichte der Neuzeit, edited by Jürgen Martschukat and Olaf Stieglitz (Berlin: Neofelis 2016), 377-383.

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

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

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

Sebastian Jobs. “Introduction.” In Agents of Transculturation: Boder-Crossers, Mediators, Go-Betweens, edited by Sebastian Jobs and Gesa Mackenthun (Münster: Waxmann, 2013), 7-22.

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

Sebastian Jobs. “Introduction.” In Embodiments of Cultural Encounters, edited by Sebastian Jobs and Gesa Mackenthun (Münster: Waxmann, 2011), 7-20.

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

Sebastian Jobs and Alf Lüdtke. “Unsettling History: Introduction.” In Unsettling History: Archiving and Narrating in Historiography, edited by Sebastian Jobs and Alf Lüdtke (Frankfurt/Main: Campus, 2010), 7-25.

Sebastian Jobs. "Die Geschichte New Yorks." GEOEpoche 33 (2008), 172-177.

 

Encyclopedia Articles

Sebastian Jobs. “Sklaverei und Sklavenhandel.” In Online-Dossier Postkolonialismus und Globalgeschichte, Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung (Hg.).

Sebastian Jobs. “American Dream,” “John F. Kennedy,” “Martin Luther King” and “New York City.” In Metzler Lexikon Moderne Mythen, edited by Juliane Ebert and Stephanie Wodianka (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2014).

Reviews and Conference Reports

Sebastian Jobs. Review of Encountering Otherness. Diversities and Transcultural Experiences in Early Modern European Cultures, edited by Guido Abbattista. Revista Hispania LXXIV (2014), 592-596.

Sebastian Jobs. "Narrating Southern History." Review of Michael L. Nicholls, Whispers of Rebellion: Narrating Gabriel’s Conspiracy, by Michael L. Nicholls, and Storytelling, History, and the Postmodern South, edited by Jason Phillips. H-Soz-Kult (March 2014).

Sebastian Jobs. Review of Speaking History: Oral Histories of the American Past, 1865-present, by Sue Armitage and Laurie Mercier. H-Soz-Kult (August 2010).

Sebastian Jobs. Review of The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America, by Margot Canaday. H-Soz-Kult (January 2010).

Sebastian Jobs. Review of Invading Bodies: Medizin und Immigration in den USA 1880-1920, by Barbara Lüthi. WerkstattGeschichte 53 (2009), p. 119-120.

Sebastian Jobs. Conference Report: Embodiments of Cultural Contact. H-Soz-Kult (November 2009).

Sebastian Jobs. Review of Grief in Wartime: Private Pain, Public Discourse, by Carol Acton. H-Soz-Kult (February 2008).

Sebastian Jobs. Review of Building America. Die Erschaffung einer neuen Welt, edited by Anke Köth, Anna Minta and Andreas Schwarting. H-Soz-Kult (July 2007).

Sebastian Jobs and Nora Kreuzenbeck. Conference Report: Das Bild der ‘eigenen’ Geschichte im Spiegel des kolonialen ‘Anderen’. Internationale Perspektiven um 1900. H-Soz-Kult (January 2007). 

 

Translations

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

Sebastion Jobs, in cooperation with Tilman Lüdtke. Translation of Mehrzad Boroujerdi, “Die Reformbewegung in Iran - Erfahrungen und Beobachtungen in einem Vierteljahrhundert Islamischer Republik,” SOWI 34.2 (2005), 37-44.