Department of European Regional History
Research
Research Project “Regionalism and Separatism in Europe, 1850-2000: A Trans-Local History”
This project takes a comparative approach to researching the culture-based regional identities that formed relatively rapidly in Europe after 1850 and their gradual politicization to the point of violent separatism in the twentieth century. It aims to examine mobility and boundary-drawing practices in spaces with contentious political status and cultural identities as well as the strategies employed to legitimize separatist efforts. The project focuses especially on the personal connections and ideological entanglements between the supporters and opponents of various movements, and on their conflicting views on historical events. Overall, it aims to question the standard periodization of regional loyalties and analyse the ongoing significance of locality in an increasingly globalized world.
Book Project: “Dealing with Religious-Secular Otherness in the Belgian-German-Netherlands Border Area since the Early Modern Period”
This project, due to culminate in a book publication, investigates how people dealt with religious-secular otherness in Europe after 1500, and especially in the Belgian-German-Netherlands border region. Extending its scope to span epochs, it traces examples of the marginalization of people of different faiths and convictions from the early modern period up to the 21st century and scrutinizes the impact of the gradually consolidating human rights discourse on everyday dealings with ‘others.’ In parallel, it explores how marginalized people have reacted to abuse and resisted exclusion. Special attention is paid to the role territorial boundaries have played in people’s handling of religious or ideological otherness, e.g., by marking the opportunity to avoid punishment by the police or help build community across borders. This project is a cooperation with the Lower-Rhine Academy (Niederrhein-Akademie / Akademie Nederrijn) and the Institute of Lower-Rhine Cultural History and Regional Development (Institut für niederrheinische Kulturgeschichte und Regionalentwicklung).
Book Project “Religion and Violence in Modern History” (edited by Eveline G. Bouwers)
This book discusses the connection between religion and violence in a global-historical perspective since 1800. Considering episodes of violence involving members of all five major world religions and secularists, it enquires into the origins of religion-related violence and the various forms in which it has appeared, describes the legitimizing strategies used, and examines perceptions of these. The book focuses on communities that formed a majority or acted from a hegemonial position as well as those that formed minorities or were ostensibly powerless. It presents case studies from a range of contexts, from the Catholic-Protestant conflict in the Anglo-American world, anti-Semitic violence in turn-of-the-century Europe, and Communist violence against religious groups, to Hindu violence in today’s India, Buddhist aggression in Myanmar and Islamist terrorism in the Middle East. In this way, the book sheds light on both the breadth of human reactions to religious-related difference and the significance of secular differences. By discussing the diverse range of causes of religion-related violence, it belies any essentialist understanding of the connection between religion and violence.
Research Network “European Entangled Atheisms: Concepts of Unbelief and the People Shaping them from the 1860s to the 1940s“
Participants in an international network, funded by the German Research Foundation, are collaborating on this project (2025-2028), analysing atheist discourses and practices in Europe of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with an emphasis on their entanglements. The project aims to investigate the regional and national peculiarities of non-religious thought while also uncovering the multiplicity of personal and intellectual connections between atheists across Europe. The network’s findings are due to be published in a digital format in order to provide access to important but hitherto overlooked sources on the history of European atheism to a broader public. The network’s spokespeople are PD Dr. Carolin Kosuch and PD Dr. Heléna Toth. See here for more information.
Research Project “The Boundaries of Freedom of Opinion and the Defence of Religion“
The project explores the history of freedom of opinion and especially how it has been limited by the criminalization of (alleged) offences against religious principles, such as blasphemy. It focuses spatially on Europe and temporally on the period since 1760, thus linking up with historiography on religious offences during the early modern period on the one hand and social science research into freedom of opinion and the protection of religious freedom since the fatwa against Salman Rushdie on the other. The project enquires into how secularization processes, religious revivals and pluralization have influenced societies’ negotiation of the boundary between criticisms of religion and crimes against religion and reveals how allegations of blasphemy have been frequently misused to regulate power relations.