Prof. Dr. Martina Stercken

• 2019 and since April 2023: Fellow at the Max-Weber-Kolleg/University of Erfurt
• 2018-2021: Deputy Director of the Centre for Historical Mediology/Zurich University
• Since 2009: Professor of Medieval History and Comparative National History/Zurich University
• 2005–2018: Co-Director of the NCCR Mediality. Historical Perspectives/Zurich University

Reformed space

The project explores the visibility of the Reformation in cities and towns of the Swiss confederacy in the 16th century, such that were reformed thoroughly or only halfway, and such that in the end held to the old belief. Focusing on the theological reasons for change, on the urban architecture as a carrier of meaning, on the ways of how space was shaped by public actions, and how it was fixed by images and historiography the project brings together perspectives mainly unconnected so far. It is argued that neither did the incorporation of the new faith into urban life bring about sudden change nor a completely new starting position. Rather, a process can be observed that took place in the urban spaces under consideration here with varying intensity and rhythm.

Selection:

• Martina Stercken, Michel Pauly: Stadtentwicklung im vormodernen Europa. Kontinuitäten und Brüche (Mediävistische Perspektiven 8), Zürich 2019, 2. Aufl. 2021.
• Martina Stercken, Christian Kiening (Hg.), Medialität. Historische Konstellationen (Medienwandel–Medienwechsel–Medienwissen 42), Zürich 2019.
• Martina Stercken, Christian Hesse (Hg.): Kommunale Selbstinszenierung. Städtische Konstellationen zwischen Mittelalter und Neuzeit (Medienwandel–Medienwechsel–Medienwissen), Zürich 2018.
• Martina Stercken: Spaces for Urban Drama at the threshold between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, in: Jean-Luc Fray, Michel Pauly, Magda Pinhero, Martin Scheutz (Hg.): Urban Spaces and the Complexity of Cities (Städteforschung A 97), Münster 2018, S. 47–62.
• Martina Stercken, Ute Schneider: Urbanität. Formen der Inszenierung in Texten, Karten, Bildern (Städteforschung 90), Köln/Wien, 2016.