Prof. Dr. Sönke Kunkel

Freie Universität
John F. Kennedy Institute
Juniorprofessor
Sprechstunde
Office hours:
Flexible office hours. Please write me an E-Mail to make an appointment.
Please note: Credit transfer forms have first to be signed by the respective department (for affine modules contact David Bosold first). I also need a transcript from you. You can send in the document via E-Mail and will get it back via E-Mail from me. You will then have to send it to the Prüfungsbüro yourself.
If you'd like to register your BA/MA thesis: If you'd like to register your BA/MA thesis: You can simply E-mail me the document to get the signature by a member of the Prüfungsausschuss. You will get it back signed from me, and then you have to send it to the Prüfungsbüro yourself.
Welcome to my profile! I am a Juniorprofessor of History at the JFKI where I specialize in transatlantic, international, and global history.
Responsibilities
Juniorprofessor of North American History at FU Berlin |
BA Coordinator of John F. Kennedy Institute |
Member of the „Beirat Qualitätssicherung Studium und Lehre“ of FU Berlin |
Member of Board of AG Internationale Geschichte, Verband der Historikerinnen und Historiker in Deutschland |
Vice-Chairman and Member of Examinations Board of JFKI |
Member of Budget Commission, JFKI |
Professional Positions
Since 2017 |
Juniorprofessor of North American History, JFKI |
2013 – 2017 |
Vorstandsreferent at Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft |
2011 – 2013 |
Postdoctoral Researcher at Jacobs University Bremen |
Education
2011 |
PhD (Dissertation) in Intercultural Humanities/History, Jacobs University Bremen |
2010 |
Recognized Student, University of Oxford |
2006 – 2007 |
Visiting Fellow, Harvard University |
2006 |
Master of Arts, Ohio State University |
2005 |
Intermediate Exam (BA), University of Cologne |
Awards and Fellowships
2019 |
Workshop Grant, Villa Vigoni, Center for European Excellence, Italy |
2019 |
Conference Grant, DFG |
2019 |
Conference Grant, Center for International Cooperation, FU Berlin |
2018 |
Postdoctoral Research Grant, German Historical Institute Washington D.C. |
2018 |
Global Scholars and Diversity Grant, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations/USA |
2012 |
Publication Grant, Ritter-Stiftung, Bremen |
2011 |
Conference Grant, German Historical Institute Washington D.C. |
2010 |
Dean’s Grant, Jacobs University Bremen |
2010 – 2012 |
Research Grant and Member of the Oslo Contemporary International History Network |
2009 – 2011 |
Doctoral scholarship, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes |
2009 – 2010 |
Research and Travel Grant, German Historical Institute Washington D.C. |
2007 –2008 |
Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes |
2005 – 2006 |
Fulbright Scholarship |
2004 – 2008 |
Scholarship, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes |
Winter Semester 2019/20
Undergraduate:
Contemporary Environmental History: Europe and the United States since 1945, Tuesdays, 10:00-12:00
Graduate:
Human Rights and Humanitarianism in International Relations since the 19thCentury, Tuesdays, 08:00-10:00
Global Inequalities: Historical and Economic Perspectives, Mondays, 10:00-12:00
Summer Semester 2019
Histories of Global Aid in Premodern and Modern Times, 1600s-2000s, Tuesdays 8:00-10:00
Holy Humanitarians? European and American Missionaries in the Age of Colonialism 18thto 19thCentury, Tuesdays 10:00-12:00
Winter Semester 2018/2019
Undergraduate:
Understanding North America A: Fridays 10:00-12:00 and 14:00-16:00
Circulating Knowledge: Science and Environmental Change in Europe and North America since the 19th Century: Tuesdays 8:00-10:00
Summer Semester 2018
Introduction to U.S. and Global Environmental History, Tuesdays 8:00-10:00
American Science Diplomacy and Science Communication since the 19th Century, Tuesdays 10:00-12:00
Winter Semester 2017/18
Understanding North America (UNA) A
Global America and its Transnational Connections, 1870s to 1920s
Summer Semester 2017
The Life and Death of American Cities, Tuesdays: 08:00-10:00
Masters of Spin: Corporate Communications, PR, and Marketing in American History, Tuesdays 14:00-16:00
My research focuses on 19th and 20th Century international and global history, transatlantic relations, and the history of international organizations and transnational movements. I also continue to work on visual history, the history of global media, and the history of public diplomacy, the focus of my first book on Empire of Pictures.
There are three broad themes that structure my research interests:
- The history of Global Humanitarianism, U.S.-European Solidarity Networks, North-South Relations, and Development in the 19th and 20th Century
- Science Diplomacy and Environmental Knowledge in the Cold War
- Global Media, Public Diplomacy and U.S. Foreign Policy in the 20th Century
Workshops
Over the last years, I have given a number of talks on those themes and organized, among others, the following workshops.
Humanitarian Missions: An Italian-German Conversation on Europe, the United States, and the ‚Global South‘ from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century, German-Italian Workshop, Villa Vigoni, Center for European Excellence, with Silvia Salvatici und Ilaria Scaglia, November 2019 |
Visions of Humanity, Culture & International History VI, Freie Universität Berlin, with Jessica Gienow-Hecht und Sebastian Jobs, May 2019 |
Histories of Humanitarianism and (Visual) Media, International Panel, Annual Meeting, Canadian Historical Association, University of Regina/Kanada, with Dominique Marshall (Carleton University) and the Canadian Network on Humanitarian History, May 2018 |
Transforming Cities: Urbanization and International Development Policies in the Global South in the Twentieth Century, International Conference, Europäische Akademie Berlin, with Marc Frey, October 2018 |
Global Inequalities: Historical, Economic, and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Berlin, with Wolfgang Strehl (Economics Department/JFKI/FU Berlin), January 2020 |
Governing Environmental Change: Science Diplomacy and the Global Politics of Knowledge since the 19th Century, International Workshop, FU Berlin, with Nadin Heé (FU Berlin), Mariko Jacoby (Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte Berlin), Simone Turchetti (University of Manchester), November 2018 |
Monographs
- Empire of Pictures: Global Media and the 1960s Remaking of American Foreign Policy, New York, Berghahn Books (Explorations in Culture and International History, Vol. 8), 2018; 2. edition, Paperback
Edited Volumes and Special Issues
- Urbanization and International Development in Latin America and Africa since 1945 (with Nancy Kwak and Marc Frey), in: Comparativ. Zeitschrift für Globalgeschichte und vergleichende Gesellschaftsforschung, 30 (2020), No. 1/2, 9-156
- International Organizations and Development, 1945 – 1990 (with Marc Frey and Corinna Unger), edited volume, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (Palgrave Macmillan Transnational History Series), 2014
- Aufbruch ins postkoloniale Zeitalter: Globalisierung und die außereuropäische Welt in den 1920er und 1930er-Jahren (with Christoph Meyer), Sammelband, Frankfurt a. M.: Campus (Reihe Globalgeschichte, Bd. 12), 2012
Journal Articles
- Introduction: Transforming Cities: Urbanization and International Development in Africa and Latin America since 1945, in: Comparativ. Zeitschrift für Globalgeschichte und vergleichende Gesellschaftsforschung, 30 (2020), Heft 1/2, 9-18 (with Nancy Kwak und Marc Frey).
- Emerging Field Essay: Globales Wissen und Science Diplomacy im 20. Jahrhundert. Eine Bestandsaufnahme, in: Neue Politische Literatur, Vol. 65, No. 1 (2020), 19-43
- History of Global Media, in: Patricia Moy (ed.), Oxford Bibliographies in Communication, New York: Oxford University Press, 02/2020 [https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756841/obo-9780199756841-0243.xml]
- “Zwischen Globalisierung, Internationalen Organisationen und ‘Global Governance:‘ Eine kurze Geschichte des Nord-Süd-Konflikts in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren,“ Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Bd. 60, Nr. 3 (Oktober 2012), 555-577
- “Writing the History of Development: A Review of the Recent Literature,“ Contemporary European History, Bd. 20, Nr. 2 (2011), 215-232 (with Marc Frey)
- “Systeme des Wissens, Visionen von Fortschritt: Die Vereinigten Staaten, die Dekolonisierung und das Jahrzehnt der Modernisierungstheorie, 1954-1965,“ in: Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, Bd. 48 (2008), 155-182
- “Verhandelte Symbolik: Die Vereinten Nationen und die Four Freedoms Flag,“ in: Vereinte Nationen, Bd. 56, Nr. 6/2008, 263-268 (with Jost Dülffer)
Essays in Edited Volumes
- Global Media, Emotions, and the ‘Kennedy Narrative:’ Kennedy as Seen from the ‘Global South,’ in: Cyrus Schayegh (ed.), Globalizing the U.S. Presidency: Postcolonial Views of John F. Kennedy, London: Bloomsbury 2020, 100-114
- No Easy Solutions: Global Cities, Natural Disasters, Development, and the Intellectual History of Resilience Thinking, 1960s to 1990s, in: Dorothee Brantz/Avi Sharma (eds.), Urban Resilience in a Global Context: Actors, Narratives, and Temporalities Bielefeld: Transcript 2020, 129-146
- Globales Umweltwissen, Naturgefahren, und Wissenschaftsdiplomatie. Katastrophenhilfe in den Nord-Süd-Beziehungen, in: Jürgen Dinkel/Steffen Fiebrig/Frank Reichherzer (eds.), Nord/Süd: Perspektiven auf eine globale Konstellation, München: Degruyter 2020, 357-378
- “Introduction: International Organizations, Global Development, and the Making of the Contemporary World,” in: Frey/Kunkel/Unger, International Organizations and Development, Basingstoke: Palgrave 2014, 1-22 (with Marc Frey and Corinna Unger)
- “Contesting Globalization: The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the Transnationalization of Sovereignty,” in: Frey/Kunkel/Unger, International Organizations and Development, Basingstoke: Palgrave 2014, 240-258,
- “Dimensionen des Aufbruchs: Die 1920er und 1930er-Jahre in globaler Perspektive“, in: Kunkel/Meyer (eds.), Aufbruch ins postkoloniale Zeitalter, Frankfurt: Campus 2012, 7-33 (with Christoph Meyer)
- “Fortschritt nach Plan? Der globale Entwicklungsdiskurs des Völkerbundes und die Anfänge des systemischen Denkens,“ in: Kunkel/Meyer (eds.), Aufbruch ins postkoloniale Zeitalter, Frankfurt: Campus 2012, 123-141 (with Christoph Meyer)
- “Amerikanischer Wissenstransfer im Nigeria der frühen 1960er Jahre,” in: Bernd Greiner/Tim B. Müller/Claudia Weber (eds.), Macht und Geist im Kalten Krieg, Hamburg: Hamburger Edition 2011, 341-358
- “Ernst Cassirer – Vordenker der Bildwissenschaft? Plädoyer für eine Rehabilitierung,“ in: Urs Büttner et. al. (eds.), Potentiale der symbolischen Formen. Eine interdisziplinäre Einführung in Ernst Cassirers Denken, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 2011, 93-100
- “Weimar’s Politainment. Zukunftsentwürfe und Modellierungen des Politischen in der deutschen Unterhaltungsgesellschaft (1924-1931),“ in: Urs Buettner/Christoph Bareither (eds.), Fritz Langs ‘M’ – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder. Texte und Kontexte, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 2010, 149-158
Reviews
- Sarah Lorenzini, Global Development. A Cold War History, in: H-Soz-u-Kult (Juli 2020)
- Visions of Humanity. Conference Report, in: H-Soz-u-Kult (Juli 2019)
- Matthias Kuhnert, Humanitäre Kommunikation. Entwicklung und Emotionen bei britischen NGOs, 1945-1990, Berlin 2017, in: Neue Politische Literatur 64 (2), 2019, 426-428.
- Niall Ferguson et. al., The Shock of the Global. The 1970s in Perspective, Cambridge 2010, in: H-Soz-u-Kult (September 2010)
- Susanne Stemmler u.a. (Hrsg.), 1989 – Globale Geschichten, Göttingen 2009, in: H-Soz-u-Kult (Frühjahr 2010)
- Trajectories of Decolonization: Elites and the Transformation from the Colonial to The Postcolonial, Konferenzbericht, in: Bulletin of the German Historical Institute, Bd. 44 (Frühjahr 2009), 95-99
- Gerard Degroot, Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest, in: H-Soz-u-Kult (Februar 2009)
- Douglas Brinkley, The Reagan Diaries, in: H-Soz-u-Kult (April 2008)
- Paul Kennedy, The Parliament of Man: The Past, Present, and Future of the United Nations, in: H-Soz-u-Kult (Januar 2008)
- Bernd Greiner, Krieg ohne Fronten: Die USA in Vietnam, in: Sehepunkte (Januar 2008)
- Jeffrey Taffet, Foreign Aid as Foreign Policy: The Alliance for Progress in Latin America, in: Sehepunkte (Dezember 2007)
- Andreas Daum, Lloyd Gardner et. al. (Hrsg.), America, the Vietnam War and the World: Comparative and International Perspectives, in: Archiv für Sozialgeschichte (November 2007)