IEG Fellowship Digital Humanities

The Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG) in Mainz awards one fellowship for a period of eight months for doctoral students or one fellowship of six months for postdocs in the field of Digital Humanities.

Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz, Germany

AIMs: The fellowship supports international doctoral students or postdocs who wish to carry out their own research project using Digital Humanities methods. There is particular interest in projects that are linked with ongoing research at the IEG as well as current research projects of the research group Digitality in historical Research | DH Lab. At IEG, you will have the chance to closely collaborate with the researchers in this Lab.

Offer and Requirements: The monthly stipend is € 1,350 for doctoral students and € 1,800 for postdocs. Additionally, you can apply for family or child allowance.

During the fellowship you are required to reside at the Institute in Mainz. You will actively participate in the IEG’s research community and the weekly colloquia, where we expect you to present your work at least once during your fellowship.

Please send your application as a single PDF file to application@ieg-mainz.de until April 14, 2025.

Further details 2025_IEG_Fellowship_DH_EN.

Please send questions regarding research and cooperation to Thorsten Wübbena:
wuebbena@ieg-mainz.de.

For general questions regarding the IEG Fellowship Programme, please address Pia Schöngarth M.A.: fellowship@ieg-mainz.de.

Further information can be found on our website:
https://www.ieg-mainz.de/www.ieg-mainz.de/en/fellowships/funding/dh_fellowship

 

Flawed Human Beings?

Martina Heßler (TU Darmstadt) speaks at the IEG Colloquium on 18 February 2025.

Martina Heßler’s new book Sisyphos im Maschinenraum is published in February. At the Colloquium of the Leibniz Institute of European History, she will speak on “Flawed Human Beings and Superior Technology? The History of a Techno-Chauvinist Comparison”. You can join the event digitally here on Webex.

In the light of new technologies such as digitalisation and artificial intelligence research, the human-machine relationship is on the current agenda, as what is considered human seems to be up for debate.  Professor Heßler in her work examines the historical changes of human beings through and with technology. She is Professor of the History of Technology at the TU Darmstadt. Before moving there in 2019, she was Professor of Cultural and Technological History at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach (2006-2009) and Professor of Modern Social, Economic and Technological History at the Helmut Schmidt University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg (2010-2019).

Martina Heßler’s publications include „Mrs. Modern Woman“. Zur Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte der Haushaltstechnisierung (2nd ed. 2024) and „Die kreative Stadt“: Zur Neuerfindung eines Topos (2007). She also co-edited Technikanthropologie. Handbuch für Wissenschaft und Studium (2020) which provides an overview of the approaches, methods and topics of a historical anthropology of technology.

Join here on 18 February at 4 p.m. (CET).

European History Yearbook – Call for Proposals

We are looking for innovative proposals for thematic issues.

Call for Proposals EHY

Founded in 2000, the Yearbook is dedicated to European history from the early modern period to contemporary history. The broad chronological scope, thematic diversity and methodological openness have characterized the Yearbook from the very beginning and have made it a central place for academic debate.

We seek proposals for full thematic issues, 6-8 chapters a 7-8000 words per chapter. Topics can range from European interactions and intellectual-social processes of an overarching nature to studies on Europe’s entanglements beyond its borders. The yearbook is open to the entire spectrum of historical “sub-disciplines” as well as diverse methodological approaches, always on condition that a European or comparative approach is adopted.

The European History Yearbook is published open access and peer reviewed. Each volume has a thematic focus, and the FORUM offers space for historical reflections and debates.

Please contact the Editors j.paulmann@ieg-mainz.de and reinhardt@ieg-mainz.de

or De Gruyter Senior Acquistions Editor rabea.rittgerodt@degruyter.com

Go Directly To Latest Issue Europe Across Boundaries

Stadt und Kolonialismus

Call for Papers

Deadline 31. Jan. 2025

Südwestdeutscher Arbeitskreis für Stadtgeschichtsforschung

in Verbindung mit dem Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte Mainz, der Universität des Saarlandes und dem MARCHIVUM Mannheim

Veranstaltungsort: MARCHIVUM, Mannheim, 21.-23.11.2025

Aktuelle Veröffentlichung zur Kolonialgeschichte in Mannheim  (open acess)

Der europäische Kolonialismus der Neuzeit hat sich als Fremdherrschaft über andere Länder und Weltregionen nicht nur auf die unterworfenen, abhängig gemachten und ausgebeuteten Gesellschaften und die internationale Politik ausgewirkt. Er wirkte mit seinen Strukturen und seiner Rechtfertigung aus angeblich „zivilisatorischer“ und „rassischer“ Überlegenheit auch auf Gesellschaft, Kultur und Wirtschaft in Europa selbst zurück.

Damit hat der Kolonialismus auch die Städte im deutschen Südwesten in vielfältiger Weise geprägt. Bereits seit der Frühen Neuzeit und somit lange vor der Etablierung deutscher Kolonien entstanden koloniale Handels- und Arbeitsbeziehungen zu anderen Kontinenten, die mit steigendem Umfang im 19. Jahrhundert eine immer größere Wirkungsmacht auf die lokale und regionale Wirtschaft erlangten und hier teilweise strukturbestimmend wurden. Dies reichte von der kleinen Kolonialwarenhandlung über große Handelshäuser bis hin zu industriellen Großunternehmen, die Rohstoffe aus Übersee verarbeiteten. Auch die global agierenden westeuropäischen Handelskompanien übten als Arbeitgeber eine große Anziehung auf zehntausende Menschen aus dem deutschen Südwesten aus. Auf diese Weise kam eine wachsende Bandbreite der städtischen Gesellschaft direkt oder indirekt mit dem Kolonialismus in Berührung.

Die Stadtgesellschaften selbst eigneten sich das Koloniale in ihrem Innern an und entwickelten entsprechende Selbstbilder und auch Strukturen – angefangen von Missionsvereinen bis hin zu Kolonialgesellschaften. Ihren öffentlichen Ausdruck fand diese Haltung im Kulturbetrieb, etwa in Museen und ihren Sammlungen, Völkerschauen, Abenteuerliteratur, die ihrerseits kolonial geprägte Sprach- und Mentalitätsformen vermittelten. Nicht zuletzt wurden auch Akteure, die direkt in den Kolonien als Verwaltungsangehörige, Militärs, Handelsleute, Missionare oder Abenteurer agierten und nicht selten in Gewalthandlungen involviert waren, zu Helden und Identifikationsfiguren vor Ort inszeniert. Umgekehrt gelangten auch Menschen aus den Kolonien unfreiwillig oder freiwillig in die deutschen Städte. Der Blick auf das fremde „Exotische“ diente dabei auch immer der Bestätigung der eigenen kulturellen, „zivilisatorischen“ Überlegenheit auf der Grundlage eines rassistischen Weltbilds. Aus der kolonialen Verflechtung der Städte resultieren zahlreiche materielle „Überreste“ im öffentlichen Raum wie Straßen oder Denkmäler, die heute in der Diskussion sind. Zivilgesellschaftliche Gruppen, aber auch schon erste Kommunalverwaltungen haben begonnen, sich mit dem Kolonialismus und seinen Ausprägungen in ihren Städten auseinanderzusetzen.

Die geplante Tagung soll zum einen zu einer wissenschaftlich begründeten Aufarbeitung und Debatte beitragen, zum anderen verschiedene Strategien der Aufarbeitung zusammenfassen und diskutieren. Berücksichtigt werden sollen neben dem Imperialismus im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert als Hochzeit des Kolonialismus auch die Jahrhunderte davor, als Handels-, Missions-, Arbeits- und Wissensbeziehungen Grundlagen für spätere koloniale Strukturen schufen, und die anschließenden post-koloniale Jahrzehnte. Themenschwerpunkte können individuelle und kollektive Akteure, Handel und Wirtschaft, Missionstätigkeit und Kultureinrichtungen sein sowie die zugrundeliegenden Ideologien und Denkweisen.

Die Tagung des Südwestdeutschen Arbeitskreises für Stadtgeschichtsforschung wird in Kooperation mit dem Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte in Mainz und der Universität des Saarlandes in Saarbrücken durchgeführt. Die Hotel- und Reisekosten der Vortragenden werden durch den Veranstalter übernommen.

Bitte schicken Sie Ihren Vortragsvorschlag (300 Wörter) bis zum 31.01.2025 an Christian Groh (MARCHIVUM, Mannheim): christian.groh@mannheim.de

Oxford — Mainz PhD Workshop 2023

CALL FOR PAPERS: Joint Mainz Oxford Graduate Workshop

European History Across Boundaries from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century

Alte Universität, Leibniz Institute of European History

Academy Conveners: Noëmie Duhaut (Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz), Johannes Paulmann (Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz) and Lyndal Roper (University of Oxford)

Venue: Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz

Date: May 31–June 2, 2023

Deadline for Applications: February 15, 2023

We invite applications for an international doctoral workshop on European history across boundaries from the 16th to the 20th century, including Europe’s relations with the world. We encourage PhD candidates working in this field to present their research projects and discuss the transcultural and transnational scopes of their work. Topics that aim to cross and reflect on boundaries and borders are of particular interest. Projects can employ a variety of methodological approaches such as comparative studies, the study of transfer processes and entanglements, or the histoire croisée. The location of the joint workshop alternates annually between Mainz and Oxford. The 2023 workshop will take place at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz.

We will discuss pre-circulated papers based on archival research (max. 8,000 words, written in English, to be submitted by May 1, 2023). We will provide accommodation for the duration of the workshop and contribute towards travel expenses within Europe.

Proposals should include an abstract of the overall project and its archival sources (500 words), a brief biographical note, and a completed application form, which you can download here: https://bit.ly/3GDTV6y. Please combine all your application documents into a single PDF except for the application form.

Applications should be sent to gw@ieg-mainz.de by February 15, 2023. For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the organisers.

Contact:

Dr Noëmie Duhaut

duhaut@ieg-mainz.de

download: CfP PhD Workshop pdf

Conquerors and Conquered

Narrating the Fall of Constantinope (1453) and Tenochtitlán (1521)

Workshop, 7 – 8 April 2022, at Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG) Mainz

Siege of Constantinople

Siege of Constantinople (Enluminure ornant La Cronicque du temps de tres chrestien roy Charles, septisme de ce nom, roy de France par Jean Chartier, c. 1470-79, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. Français 2691, folio 254 verso; Source)

This workshop is the first of three conferences that ex- plore similarities and connections between Ottoman and Spanish histories of expansion in the early modern period as well as lasting memories thereof. It focuses on two key events in world history: the fall of Constantinople and the fall of Tenochtitlán. Although these events have much in common and were interrelated, they have rarely been looked at together.

Conquista del señorio caxcán de Apulco por los españoles y Tlaxcaltecas, 1585, Artist: Diego Muñoz Camargo (Source)

The workshop brings together historians of different regions to discuss how contemporaries saw the end of an old and the beginning of a new era, how they con- nected these events to ancient prophecies, how they wrote their histories of loss and victory, and how these early narratives have since shaped respective memory cultures. Did the conquerors, the conquered, and the various intermediaries in the Old and New World draw connections between their histories? Did they see, for instance, that the Ottoman expansion in the Eastern Mediterranean pushed the Spanish and Portuguese to seek new trading routes to Asia, which eventually led to the conquest of the Americas?

Organizers: Denise Klein (IEG), Thomas Weller (IEG), Barbara Henning (University of Mainz), Richard Herzog (University of Marburg)

Download Workshop Programm

The workshop is organised by IEG for the Leibniz Research Alliance “Wert der Vergangenheit” (Value of the Past)

Digital History: Fellowship @IEG_Mainz

Fellowship in Digital Humanities

The Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG) in Mainz awards a fellowship for international doctoral students in the field of Digital Humanities

Deadline: April 18, 2022.

Download IEG_DH Fellowship (english) or 2022_DH Fellowship (German)

On the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine

Statement by the Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz

We, at the Leibniz Institute of European History, are dismayed by the news reaching us from Ukraine. In the last few years alone, ten Ukrainian historians have been guests at our Institute for extended research stays. Today we have to fear for their lives and those of their families and friends. Our thoughts are with them. We are with you! Ми з вами!

We strongly condemn Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which is contrary to international law. Our Institute was founded more than 70 years ago to contribute to overcoming Europe’s divisions by researching the historical foundations of Europe. During the Cold War, it was, among other things, the venue of the “German-Soviet Historians’ Talks”. Today it pains us to see that a brutal war is being waged in the heart of Europe. The painstakingly achieved foundations of a peaceful, future-oriented order in Europe are being trampled on by Putin – not for the first time. It is therefore all the more admirable that courageous people in Russia are also taking to the streets and saying “No to war”. Нет войне!

Ukraine is a fundamental part of European history. In historiography, it is undisputed that Ukraine is a sovereign European country with its own history and not merely an appendage of the historical or a future Russian empire. As historians, we are particularly appalled by the instrumentalisation and falsification of history that Putin uses to justify his military aggression against Ukraine. The community of scholars, including the German-Ukrainian Commission of Historians, has rejected these false claims in detail [Statement 2022-02-24 and Statement 2022-02-22]. We add that it is not a contradiction that Ukraine is both closely intertwined with Russian history, its various cultural manifestations and religions and in historical exchange with Central and Western Europe, not least with Germany. Ukraine is a multi-ethnic and culturally diverse country, with different denominations, religions, and languages, as well as a rich historical heritage. The diversity in European history is part of our research mission. Hardly any other country illustrates the diversity and mutual exchanges in Europe as clearly as Ukraine.

This European history of Ukraine must also be researched in the future without political interventions and restrictions. That is why we support initiatives for endangered researchers from Ukraine, to enable them to work in a safe place and to make their voices heard. We are with you! Ми з вами!

Mainz, 26 February 2022

Contact: Professor Johannes Paulmann (paulmann@ieg-mainz.de) and Dr Gregor Feindt (feindt@ieg-mainz.de)

download pdf (engl.): Statement Leibniz Institute of European History Russian War against Ukraine

download pdf (dt.): Erklärung Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte Russischer Angriffskrieg auf Ukraine

Oxford – Mainz PhD Workshop 2022

Call for Papers: Joint Mainz-Oxford-Graduate Workshop: “European History across Boundaries from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century”

Participants of the 2019 Workshop in the Oriel College Library

Academy Conveners: Noëmie Duhaut (Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz), Johannes Paulmann (Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz) and Lyndal Roper (University of Oxford)

Venue: Oriel College, Oxford University

Date: 30 March – 1 April 2022

Deadline for Applications: 15 December 2021

We invite applications for an international doctoral workshop on European history across boundaries from the 16th to the 20th century, including Europe’s relations with the world. We encourage PhD candidates working in this field to present their research projects and discuss the transcultural and transnational scopes of their work. Topics that aim to cross and reflect on boundaries and borders are of particular interest. Projects can employ a variety of methodological approaches such as comparative studies, the study of transfer processes and entanglements, or the histoire croisée. The location of the joint workshop alternates annually between Mainz and Oxford. The 2022 workshop will be at Oriel College in Oxford and include a discussion of disputed historical monuments – such as the Cecil Rhodes statue in this college – and their future.

We will discuss pre-circulated papers based on archival research (max. 8,000 words, written in English, to be submitted by 1 March 2022). We will provide accommodation for the duration of the workshop and contribute towards travel expenses within Europe.

Proposals should include an abstract of the overall project and its archival sources (500 words), a brief biographical note, and a completed application form, which you can download here: https://bit.ly/3mzdHrh. Please combine all your application documents into a single PDF except for the application form.

Applications should be sent to gw@ieg-mainz.de by 15 December 2021. For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the organisers.

Contact: Dr Noëmie Duhaut, Leibniz Institute of European History, Alte Universitätsstr. 19, 55116 Mainz, Germany, +49 6131-39 39428, gw@ieg-mainz.de

Governing Humanitarianism – Past, Present, And Future

Two Digital Panels on 27 and 28 September 2021 in Preparation of the 2022 Herrenhausen Conference

Organized by Stacey Hynd, Fabian Klose, Johannes Paulmann, and Andrew Thompson in cooperation with the Volkswagen Foundation

North Coast at Lesbos, September 2015, by Rosa-Maria Rinkl via Wikimedia Commons, source.

“Human Rights and Humanitarianism – a Complicated Relationship?” – September 27, 2021, 3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. (CET): panel discussion with Michael Barnett (George Washington University), Julia Irwin (University of South Florida, Tampa), and Angelika Nußberger (University of Cologne), chair: Fabian Klose (University of Cologne).

UNSG’s Special Advisor on the prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng speaking to the press in Tshikapa (by MONUSCO/Biliaminou Alao, 2017, source)

“Forced displacement, unlawful internment, and humanitarian neutrality” – September 28, 2021, 3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. (CET): keynote by Adama Dieng (former Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, and Honorary Chair of the World Justice Project; chair: Andrew Thompson (Nuffield College, Oxford).

The digital panels are both part of next year’s Herrenhausen Conference “Governing Humanitarianism – Past, Present and Future” (2022), funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. Link to join events https://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/veranstaltungen/livestream.

Continue reading

Two Postdoctoral Positions in Early Modern and Late Modern European History

The Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG) in Mainz invites applications for two full-time postdoctoral position in Early Modern and Late Modern European History.

The Leibniz Institute of European History is a research institute within the Leibniz Association. It conducts research on the foundations of Europe in the modern period .

Job profile
You pursue an individual research project within the frame of the IEG ongoing research programme on »Negotiating differences in Modern Europe« and will contribute to its future development. With your research and publication activities, you will engage in the overarching working and discussion contexts of the institute and participate in elaborating its research profile. In addition, you will advise international (doctoral) research fellows, organise academic events and work towards consolidating the IEG’s international network.

Requirements

  • completed university degree in history
  • outstanding PhD
  • relevant academic publications on the history of the early modern or late modern period
  • internationally oriented academic track
  • excellent command of both German and English

For full details see here:

The IEG promotes professional equality between women and men and is committed to reconciling work and family life. Women are particularly encouraged to apply. Severely challenged persons with equal qualifications will be given preferential consideration. For any questions, please contact the research coordinator of the IEG, Dr Joachim Berger (berger@ieg-mainz.de).

Applications
Please send your application via email to the Leibniz Institute of European History by 03 October 2021 (bewerbung@ieg-mainz.de); all documents should be submitted in a single file (PDF).

Data meets History

New Essay on Research Data Management for History (online)

Data Meets History: A Research Data Management Strategy for the Historically Oriented Humanities by Fabian Cremer, Silvia Daniel, Marina Lemaire, Katrin Moeller, Matthias Razum, and Arnošt Štanzel

Example of a digital historical research workflow

The growing relevance of research data to practices, methodology and policies poses challenges for the historically oriented humanities in developing their own concept of research data management. A broader definition of research data is derived from recent discussions and an examination of the historical research workflow reveals its ongoing digital transformation. Based on current developments in Germany, this article provides an outline for a strategic approach towards a domain-specific research data management strategy including applicable metadata concepts, cultural conditions for data sharing and initial suggestions regarding the specification of the FAIR principles for the historically oriented humanities. The essay is the collaborative work of scholars engaged in NFDI4Memory, a consortium for the historically oriented humanities.

Fabian Cremer, Silvia Daniel, Marina Lemaire, Katrin Moeller, Matthias Razum, and Arnošt Štanzel are members of NFDI4Memory, a consortium for the historically oriented humanities.

Sovereignty Beyond the Modern State

Out Now – Open Access

New issue of the European History Yearbook on “Cultural Sovereignty Beyond the Modern State: Space, Objects, and Media”

In the past 25 years or more, political observers have diagnosed a crisis of the sovereign nation state and the erosion of state sovereignty through supranational institutions and the global mobility of capital, goods, information and labour. This edition of the European History Yearbook seeks to use “cultural sovereignty” as a heuristic concept to provide new views on these developments since the beginning of the 20th century.

 

ed. by Gregor Feindt, Bernhard Gissibl, Johannes Paulmann (Introduction), with contributions by:

FORUM

Data Meets History: A Research Data Management Strategy for the Historically Oriented Humanities by Fabian Cremer, Silvia Daniel, Marina Lemaire, Katrin Moeller, Matthias Razum, and Arnošt Štanzel

 

 

The Digital Knowledge Order and Data Quality

Contributions by Historical Scholarship and Challenges

Digitisation has taken hold of research in the humanities for some time: In everyday work at the computer, in searching books and articles, in reading sources online, in collaborative work and via electronic publishing, whether open access or not. The humanities are not awaiting but they are already in the middle of a new digital era.

New issue of the archival journal  “Der Archivar” with contributions by archivists, historians and digital historians (Der Archivar 1/2020)

The issue contains an essay by Johannes Paulmann, Director of the Leibniz Institute of European History, and Eva Schlotheuber, President of the German Historical Association. The write on the challenges for historians posed by the new digital knowledge order and on the issue of data quality. Paulmann Schlotheuber Essay in Archivar 2020

They content that digital research, that is research with digital tools and methods, works more or less well at the level of individual projects – or it just doesn’t work, especially when higher-level structures and links are needed: Technical and content standardization, data integration and interoperability, reusability, long-term preservation, copyright and rights of use and scientific evaluation have a variety of problems. In this situation, the initiative to establish a national research data infrastructure has been taken up positively on all sides in Germany. The initiative came from the German Council for Information Infrastructures (RfII) – a science policy advisory body to the federal government and the states.

From the point of view of the historical sciences, there are fundamental issues. We are, on the one hand, in the midst of building a new knowledge order. On the other, we deal with the essential question of how in the framework of a digital order data quality is ensured, can be checked and made transparent. For both areas – new knowledge order and data quality – the development of a scholarly led (inter)national data infrastructure is urgently needed. Reflecting ont the challenges for the historical scholarship also makes an essential contribution to the critical reflection of digital research and work in general as well as on societal use of knowledge in the present and the future .

These concerns are central to the 4Memory consortium initiative in which they are envolved . The initiative aims to establish systematic, sustainable links among three main categories of the producers and users of historical data: historical researchers, memory institutions (archives, libraries, museums, and collections) and information infrastructures. For more information see the 4Memory website.