University of Heidelberg

Contact information

Projects

• B9 Information Flows (project completed)
• B17 The Nation State & Beyond (project completed)
• HRA7 GeoTWAIN
• MC12 Floating Spaces
• MC12.1 Ships' Newspapers
• MC12.3 Cultural Practices at Sea

Curriculum vitae

Education

2011, 22 Jun: Habilitation at the Philosophische Fakultät of Heidelberg University. Venia Legendi: Modern History. Habilitation thesis: ‘Transforming Global Spaces: The Telegraph, Communication and Globalization in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century’.

2002, 12 Apr: Doctoral degree (doctor philosophiae) earned at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Salzburg University, Austria. Doctoral thesis: ‘Ceylon 1880-1900: Economic, Social, Administrative and Religious Developments’ (Supervisor: Dr. Norbert Ortmayr, Department of History, Salzburg University).

1999 – 2002: Graduate student at the Department of History, Salzburg University, Austria

1999, 12 Oct: Master degree (magister philosophiae) earned at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Salzburg University, Austria. Master thesis: ‘Agrarian Conflicts in Bihar. Caste War or Class Fights in Postcolonial India since Independence’ (Supervisor: Dr. Norbert Ortmayr, Department of History, Salzburg University).

1994 – 1999: Student at the Department of History and the Department of Communication Sciences, Salzburg University, Austria.

1994, 24 Jun: A-Levels in German, Mathematics, English and History.

Work Experience

Since September 2014: Professor of Modern History at the History Department, Heidelberg University.

2013/14: Offer of the Chair of Economic and Social History at the University of Innsbruck.

2013, Apr - 2014, Mar: Visiting Professor/Gastprofessor at the Institute for European Global Studies, University of Basel.

2012, Nov - 2014, Aug: Heisenberg Fellow at the History Department, Heidelberg University.

2011, Sep - 2012, Oct: Visiting Professor/Vertretungsprofessor Modern History (Prof. Dr. Madeleine Herren-Oesch) at the History Department, Heidelberg University.

2008, Oct - 2012, Oct: Junior Research Group Leader in the Cluster of Excellence ‘Asia and Europe in a Global Context’ at Heidelberg University.
Research project: ‘Asymmetries in Cultural Information Flows: Europe and South Asia in the Global Information Network since the Nineteenth Century.’
 
2005, Apr – 2008, Sep: Lecturer and researcher at the Centre for British Studies, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin (Mohrenstrasse 60, 10117 Berlin, Germany).
Research project ‘Continuity and Change in the History of the Information Society: From the Telegraph Network to the Internet.’
 
2004, May – 2005, Mar: Freelance historical adviser to Ravensburger Spieleverlag (Robert-Bosch-Strasse 1, 88214 Ravensburg, Germany).

Project assistance ‘United States Culture and Communications Policy and the Internet at the End/the Beginning of the ‚American Century’’ at the Department of History and Politics, Salzburg University.
 
2003, Sep – 2004, Apr: Researcher at the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies (Kirchweg 33, 14129 Berlin, Germany). Coordinator of the interdisciplinary research project ‘Port Regimes in the Indian Ocean: Governance and Public Goods.’
 
2002, Feb –  2003, Jan: Social worker at Fa. TAO&ModeCircel (Teisenberggasse 25, 5020 Salzburg, Austria). Re-integration of long-term unemployed persons into the labour market.
 
1998, Sep – 2000, Apr: Co-founder of and radio journalist and producer at the radio station ‘Radiofabrik – Freies Radio Salzburg’, Salzburg, Austria
 
1998, Aug: Internship at the Federal Historical Archives of Upper Austria, Linz, Austria.
 
1997, Aug: Internship at the radio station ‘Radio Untersberg’, Freilassing, Germany.

Fellowships & Grants

2012, Nov – 2014, Aug: Heisenberg Fellowship of the German Research Foundation (DFG)

2012, Oct: "Klaus-Georg und Sigrid Hengstberger-Preis" for young scholars at Heidelberg University

2008, Nov – 2013, Oct: Fellow of the Centre for British Studies, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin. 

2006, Sep – 2009, Aug: Honorary Research Fellow in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Birkbeck College, University of London. 

2006, Aug – 2010, Mar: German Research Foundation (DFG) Research Scholarship – Travel Grants. 

2006, Aug – 2007, Sep: German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) PostDoc Programme Research Scholarship. 

2001, Feb/Mar: Salzburg University Scholarship for Research Abroad – Research at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES), Kandy, Sri Lanka, and at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. 

2000, May/Jun: Salzburg University Scholarship for Research Abroad – Research at the Public Record Office (PRO), the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICS), the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and the British Library, London, UK. 

1999, Jan – Mar: Salzburg University Scholarship for Research Abroad – Research at the A.N. Sinha Institute for Social Studies (ANSISS) and at Patna University, Patna, India. 

1997: Salzburg University Exceptional Performance Grant.

Selected publications

Monographs   

(and Monica Juneja) Die Neuzeit 1789-1914. UTB basics. Konstanz: UVK 2013.

Connecting the Nineteenth-Century World: The Telegraph and Globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2012.

From Coffee to Tea Cultivation in Ceylon, 1880-1900: An Economic and Social History. Leiden – Boston: Brill Academic Publishers 2008.

Edited Volumes   

(and Isabella Löhr) The Nation State and Beyond. Governing Globalization Processes in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (ed.). Heidelberg: Springer, 2013.

(and Christiane Brosius) Transcultural Turbulences. Interdisciplinary Explorations of Flows of Images and Media (ed.). Heidelberg: Springer 2011.

Global Communication. Telecommunication and Global Flows of Information in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century. Special Issue of Historical Social Research (ed.). Köln: Center for Historical Social Research 35 (2010), 1.

Counterfactual Thinking as a Scientific Method. Special Issue of Historical Social Research (ed.). Köln: Center for Historical Social Research 34 (2009), 2.

Articles & Capters   

(and Isabella Löhr) "Introduction: The Nation State and Beyond. Governing Globalization Processes in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries." In: Löhr/Wenzlhuemer, The Nation State and Beyond. Governing Globalization Processes in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (ed.). Heidelberg: Springer, 2013, p. 1-26.

(and Michael Offermann) "Ship Newspapers and Passenger Life Aboard Transoceanic Steamships in the Late Nineteenth Century." In: Transcultural Studies 3, (2012), 1, p. 77-121.

“Less Than No Time: Zum Verhältnis von Telegrafie und Zeit.” In: Geschichte und Gesellschaft 37, (2011), 4, p. 592-613.

(and Christiane Brosius) “Introduction – Transcultural Turbulences: Towards a Multi-Sited Reading of Image Flows.” In: Brosius, Christiane/Wenzlhuemer, Roland (eds.). Transcultural Turbulences. Interdisciplinary Explorations of Flows of Images and Media. Heidelberg: Springer 2011, p. 3-24.

“’I had occasion to telegraph to Calcutta’: Die Telegrafie und ihre Rolle in der Globalisierung im 19. Jahrhundert.“ In: Themenportal Europäische Geschichte (2011).

“The History of Standardisation in Europe.” In: Europäische Geschichte Online (2010).

“Editorial - Telecommunication and Globalization in the Nineteenth Century.” In: Wenzlhuemer, Roland (ed.). Global Communication. Telecommunication and Global Flows of Information in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century. Special Issue of Historical Social Research. Köln: Center for Historical Social Research 35 (2010), 1, p. 7-18.

“Globalization, Communication and the Concept of Space in Global History.” In: Wenzlhuemer, Roland (ed.). Global Communication. Telecommunication and Global Flows of Information in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century. Special Issue of Historical Social Research. Köln: Center for Historical Social Research 35 (2010), 1, p. 19-47.

(and Matthias Arnold, Konrad Berner, Peter Gietz und Kilian Schultes) “GeoTwain: Geospatial Analysis and Visualisation for Researchers in Transcultural Studies.” Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on e-Science, Oxford, 7-9 Dec 2009.

“Metropolitan Telecommunication: Uneven Telegraphic Connectivity in Nineteenth-Century London.” In: Social Science Computer Review. GIS Special Edition 27 (2009), 3, p. 437-451.

“London in the Global Telecommunication Network of the Nineteenth Century.” In: New Global Studies 3, (2009), 1, Art. 2.

“Editorial: Unpredictability, Contingency and Counterfactuals.” In: Wenzlhuemer, Roland (ed.). Counterfactual Thinking as a Scientific Method. Special Issue of Historical Social Research. Köln: Center for Historical Social Research 34 (2009), 2, p. 9-15.

“Counterfactual Thinking as a Scientific Method.” In: Wenzlhuemer, Roland (ed.). Counterfactual Thinking as a Scientific Method. Special Issue of Historical Social Research. Köln: Center for Historical Social Research 34 (2009), 2, p. 27-54.

“The Dematerialization of Telecommunication: Communication Centres and Peripheries in Europe, 1850-1920.” In: Journal of Global History, 2 (2007) 3, p. 345-372.

“The Development of Telegraphy, 1870-1900: A European Perspective on a World History Challenge.” In: History Compass 5 (2007), 5, p. 1720-1742.

“Indian Labour Immigration and British Labour Policy in Nineteenth-Century Ceylon.” In: Modern Asian Studies 41 (2007), 3, p. 575-602.

“The Sinhalese Contribution to Estate Labour in Ceylon, 1881-1891.” In: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 48 (2005), 3, p. 442-45

Encyclopedia Articles   

“Telecommunications.” In: Encyclopedia of the Age of the Industrial Revolution, 1700-1920, ed. Christine Rider. Westport CT: Greenwood 2007.

“Empire, British,” “Law, Colonial Systems of, British Empire,” and “Crown Colony.” In: Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450, 3 vols, ed. Thomas Benjamin. Detroit: Macmillan Reference 2006.

“Colonialism: History,” “International Rice Research Institute,” and “Bangladesh.” In: Encyclopedia of the Developing World, 3 vols., ed. Thomas Leonard. New York: Routledge, 2005.

Reviews   

“Review of Ian Kershaw, Making Friends with Hitler. Lord Londonderry and Britain’s Road to War.” In: Hard Times (2006), 79, p. 35-37.

“Review of Dennis Judd, The Lion and the Tiger: The Rise and Fall of the British Raj, 1600-1947.” In: Itinerario 29 (2005), 3, p. 207-208.

Working Papers

(and T. Zitelmann): “Neue Paradigmen in der Hafenforschung – Das Projekt ‘Hafenregime’.” ZMO Working Paper, April 2004.