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His research interests focus on questions of identity building. In his book Heinrich Graetz – Jewish Identity and Historiography (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Publishers, 2008), he addressed the construction of Jewish identity by means of historiography in 19th century Germany. He has received research fellowships from the German National Academic Foundation, the Institute for European History (Mainz/Germany), and Harvard University, among others. Current research focuses on the use of morality and of religious values for identity politics, both with regard to modern Bourgeoisie and the modern understanding of “Europe”. His teaching experience includes world history and world religions, with a focus on Judaism from the Biblical Times onwards, the Islamic world, India, and the West.

2020-2021 Courses:

HIS 104	Global History I: Traditions, Encounters, and Adaptation from the Stone Age to the 16th Century	FALL 2020
This course is an introduction to themes and trends in the political, economic, cultural, and social, history of pre-modern societies in global perspective. It covers the development of civilizations in Eurasia, Africa and the Americas from the Neolithic Revolution to the "Columbian Exchange" with emphasis on the emergence and diffusion of religious and political institutions, the role of the environmental context, as well as the impact of encounters between human societies. Students are introduced to the historiography of empire and global history/globalization, and attention is devoted to the reading and analysis of different categories of primary sources.
HIS 215T	Central Europe: An Urban History (Italy, Switzerland, Germany)	FALL 2020
This Academic Travel course seeks to explore urban development and urban planning of Central European cities from Antiquity to the Present. The course investigates the specific development of cities in Central Europe, both north and south of the Alps, with an emphasis on the legacies of Roman antiquity, the Christian (and Jewish) legacy of the Middle Ages, the role of princely residences, and of bourgeois middle classes. An important part plays also the various political movements of the 20th century, including the architectural fantasies of National Socialism, and the attempts post-World War II to deal with this legacy in a democratic society. The course asks in which way the interplay of tradition and modernity over time has structured not only the physical shapes of cities, but even the mindsets of the population. The travel component of this course features day trips to the Roman foundation of Como (Italy) and the oldest still standing structure in Switzerland in Riva San Vitale (Ticino), and a major excursion to the three most important cities in Bavaria: Nuremberg, Regensburg, and Munich (Germany).
HON 499	Honors Senior Capstone Experience Preparation Workshop	FALL 2020
The advanced non-credit bearing Senior Capstone Preparation Workshop is open only to Honors students and is required in the student's senior year.
HIS 105	Global History II: Globalization, the Emergence of the Modern State, and Coping with Change	SPRING 2021
This course is an introduction to themes and trends in the political, economic, cultural, and social history of modern societies in global perspective. It covers the development of societies in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas from the "Columbian Exchange" to the twenty-first century with emphasis on the development of institutions within their changing cultural, political, and environmental context, as well as the impact of encounters between human societies. Students are introduced to the historiography of globalization and of the modern state. Further attention is devoted to the analysis of different categories of primary sources. (It is recommended that HIS 104 be taken prior to HIS 105).
HIS 211W	Human in History: Biography and Life Writing	SPRING 2021
The study of history is about the role of human beings in changing times. Over the last two hundred years the idea of the role of humans in history has developed from the ‘hero’s’ perspective of agency to an understanding of the interplay between the individual and the wider environment and society. This course explores how these changing examples have been represented in biographical and autobiographical writings, and what these different perspectives mean for our interpretation of the role of human beings in history. Starting with the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and excerpts from various biographies of this Founding Father of the United States, this course also serves as an introduction to the history of historiography and life writing in a western context, and enables students to further contextualize their own experience and research. (This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirements.)
SEM 372	Treason: Accusation as a Political Tool	SPRING 2021
Treason is one of the most powerful accusations in Western political discourse. In recent years, as in previous times of crisis, its use has become more prevalent in political discourse. However,its exact meaning is changeable and contingent; the term has different meanings in different languages, and some cultures do not have a single term for it. In order to understand its widespread use in contemporary discourse, this interdisciplinary Honors seminar explores the development of the accusation through the ages, from antiquity to the present, with specific emphasis on the rise of the modern state and in particular on the accusation's usage in nationalist and populist discourses in the last hundred years.
HIS 296	Quarantine: Pandemics and the History of the Fight Against Them	SUMMER 2021
Since the Black Death in the fourteenth century, quarantines and limitations on social contact have played an important role in mitigating and ending the spread of contagious diseases. City states such as Venice and Milan and the Swiss cantons played pioneering roles in controlling epidemics. This course examines changing views of pandemics and public health policies throughout global history through the lens of the successes and failures of measures and policies designed to fight pandemics from antiquity to the current COVID-19 crisis.

Publications:

Books:
Heinrich Graetz: Jewish Identify and Historiography, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008.

Reviewed in:
Dieter Langewiesche, in: sehepunkte 9 (2009), Nr. 4 (15.04.2009), http://www.sehepunkte.de/2009/04/12484.html
Kristiane Gerhardt, in: H-Soz-u-Kult, 22.07.2009, http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/2009-3-063
Ulrich Sieg, in: Historische Zeitschrift 290 (2010), Nr. 1.

Articles in Journals:
“Historiography and Identity. On the Importance and Potential of a Contested Approach“, in Historische Zeitschrift 280 (2005), Nr. 2, 381-392.

Chapters in Books:
„Von Reformen ganz enormen traeumen wir am Bosporus.“ Das Osmanische Reich als Vorbild wider Willen in Leo Fall’s Erfolgsoperette Die Rose von Stambul (1916),“ in: Yavuz Köse (ed.): ªehrâyin. Die Welt der Osmanen, die Osmanen in der Welt. Wahrnehmungen, Begegnungen und Abgrenzungen. Festschrift Hans Georg Majer, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2012, S. 441-461. http://www.operetta-research-center.org/main.php?task=5&cat=4&sub_cat=13&id=00357

„Jewish Studies,“ in: Christian Klein (ed.), Handbuch Biographie. Methoden, Traditionen, Theorien (Encyclopedia of Biography. Methods, Traditions, Theories). Stuttgart, Weimar: Metzler, 2010, pp. 414-418.

"Jews in Munich from Mid-19th Century to 1887/92", in: Jüdisches München. Vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart, ed. by Michael Brenner and Richard Breuer, München: C.H. Beck 2006, 89-109.

"Religion and the Popularization of 'Eternal Truths'. The Example of Christian and Islamic Haeresiographies“, in: Wissenspopularisierung. Konzepte der Wissensverbreitung im Wandel, ed. by Carsten Kretschmann, Berlin 2003, 47-77.

“The Jewish World in the 12th Century and the Travelogue (“Sefär Massa‘ot”) of Benjamin of Tudela“, in: Kultur – ein Netz von Bedeutungen, ed. by Florian Steger, Würzburg 2002, 55-76.

Works in Progress:
“‘Pfeif’ ich auf die Weltmisere’. The Politics of Operetta in the First Half of the 20th Century between Escapism and Propaganda”.
“What is a Jew? Biography Writing, Categorization, and Identity Politics in Modern Jewish History and Beyond”.
“Grand Tourism? Traditions, Opportunities, and Challenges of Educational Travel” (joint project).

Awards and Honors:

Association of Friends of the Ludwigs Maximilians Univeristät München (LMU), Award for the Best Ph.D. thesis in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the LMU in 2005.
-Harvard University, Center for Jewish Studies, Harry Starr Postdoctoral Fellowship in Judaica, 2005/6.
-Institute for European History Mainz, Fellow, 2004.
-Stiftung Dialogik Zurich/Toronto, Mary and Hermann Lewin Goldschmidt-Bollag Fellowship, 2003.
-Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, Doctoral Fellowship, 2000/3.

Areas of Research:

Identities and identity politics in the 19th and 20th century, the history and politics of popular culture, History of the Eurovision Song Contest, history and methodology of historiography.