Research Focus

Social and Legal History of the Federal Republic

History of Social Movements and Protest

History of International Organizations, especially in the 19th Century

History of Knowledge and Science, especially the History of Cartography and Waterways

Qualifications

Since 2019: Habilitation project: "'With all severity' - A Social History of the 'Rechtsstaat' in the Federal Republic".

1/2013 - 2021: Editor of the project "Gerhard Mercator: Edition and translation of his correspondence".

1/2013 - 5/2019: Doctorate (Dr. phil.) at the University of Duisburg-Essen, title of the dissertation project: "The Knowledge Regime on the Rhine: Knowledge of the Rhine in the Central Commission for the Navigation on the Rhine, 1817-1880", awarded the Science Prize of the Sparkasse Essen for the Humanities and Educational Sciences, reviewers of the thesis: Prof. Dr. Ute Schneider (Essen), Prof. Dr. Johannes Paulmann (Mainz), overall grade: summa cum laude.

10/2008 - 12/2012: Studies of history, German language and literature, and educational sciences at the University of Duisburg-Essen, degree: First State Examination for the teaching profession at grammar schools and comprehensive schools, final grade: 1.1.

Functions

Since 2021: Member of the Faculty Council of the Humanities at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

2020-2023: Member of the 7th Global Young Faculty (Mercator Research Center Ruhr).

2020-2023: Member of the network „KNOW-IN: Knowledge Infrastructures: Circulation, Transfer and Translation of Knowledge across Borders“, University of Regensburg.

2015 - 2017: Member of the board of the "Historisches Doktorandenkolleg Ruhr".

since 2014: Member of the Association of Historians of Germany.

since 10/2013: Associate member of the DFG Research Training Group 1919 "Precaution, Foresight, Prediction: Contingency Management through Future Action".

Research Project

Habilitation project

'With all severity' - A Social History of the 'Rechtsstaat' in the Federal Republic

The 'Rechtsstaat', the 'Rechtsstaatlichkeit' are again and again prominent terms in the social discourses in post-war Germany: Be it through political demands for more severity of the Rechtsstaat or the concern about the threat to it in view of (political) criminality or terrorism, be it through the demands of civil movements for more 'Rechtsstaatlichkeit' or the 'Rechtsstaat' in general. The significance of the concept of the 'Rechtsstaat' in post-war German society and its legal, political and social effects in concrete situations will be examined not only in terms of the history of ideas and concepts, but also from the perspective of society as a whole. The investigation will be conducted along three social dimensions and their respective interactions: the judiciary, politics, and civil society in the broadest sense.

Finished Research Projects

Dissertation

„"The Knowledge Regime on the Rhine: Knowledge of the Rhine in the Central Commission for the Navigation on the Rhine, 1817-1880"“

Knowledge' is the central resource of international organizations for exercising power. This study is the first to examine how these organizations acquire their power resources from a historical perspective. The Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine, the world's first international organization to be understood as a testing ground for practices in dealing with knowledge in international organizations, serves as a case study here. This history of knowledge of the Rhine thus contributes to the understanding of the 19th century as an age of internationalism and examines concrete practices of internationalization that point beyond the object of study.

The focus is on the question of which practices were developed in dealing with knowledge about the Rhine and its navigability - Rhine knowledge. More concretely, it is about how Rhine knowledge was collected, exchanged and produced between the member states France, Baden, Bavaria, Hesse, Nassau, Prussia and the Netherlands and which interrelations existed between knowledge stocks and methods of knowledge production in the member states and on the international level.

The work is based on the central thesis that in the years from the foundation of the Central Commission to the last third of the 19th century, a knowledge regime emerged through which it was determined specifically for the Rhine what should be considered valid Rhine knowledge. Peter Wehling's and Stefan Böschen's sociological concept of the knowledge regime serves for the first time as a methodological approach in the context of a larger historical study. This new approach enables the central result of the study to emerge: Knowledge was not evaluated and gained in international organizations exclusively along scientific or technical findings, but political, economic, and pragmatic forms of knowledge production were equally constitutive. Rhine knowledge thus appears as a product of multilayered negotiation processes.

The thesis was supervised and peer-reviewed by Prof. Dr. Ute Schneider, second referee was Prof. Dr. Johannes Paulmann (Mainz). The work was awarded the Science Prize of the Sparkasse Essen for Humanities and Educational Sciences 2020 in the amount of 5000 €, the printing was supported by the Geschwister Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung für Geisteswissenschaften in the amount of 2800 €.

Project Editor:

Gerardus Mercator: Edition and Translation of his Correspondence

The cartographer Gerardus Mercator wrote and received more than 200 letters throughout his life. In this project, surviving letters are re-edited and in large part translated from Latin to German for the first time.