North American History

News

Exchange with the Temple University in Philadelphia (USA)

APPLY NOW FOR 2022!

For students interested in studying abroad there is a new opportunity to spend one semester in the United States. Three places are available which will be supported by full financing by the DAAD through 2021.

Master students of the MA History with a focus on modern times can apply for the Exchange Programm with Temple Universityin Philadelphia.

Exciting impressions from our (former) exchange students can be found in our new blog UETEach - Uni Erfurt Temple Exchang and further information on the pages of the Chair of North American Historyand the International Office.

For further questions, please contact  Prof. Jürgen Martschukat

The deadline for application at the International Officefor the fall term 2022 is December 2nd, 2021.

New Research Group "Contested Democracy"

The Chair of North American History is pleased to announce the formation of a new group of researchers with a focus on "Contested Democracy". The work, which is funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation and will begin on  February 2nd, 2021. The group consists of two subprojects:

In the context of her project "Women’s history als Demokratisierung: Gerda Lerner (1920-2013)", Dr. Vera Kallenberg will write the first biography of Gerda Lerner (1920-2013), a Jewish emigré, left-wing activist, feminist writer, public intellectual and American history professor.

A PhD project will conduct research on "Identity Politics as a Decisive Political Form: Hegemonic Forces in the Conflict over Democratic Participation in the U.S. since the 1970s", looking at hegemonic identity politics in the 1970s with a special focus on whiteness, masculinity and heterosexuality discourses.

The PhD project "'Let's Make America Great Again' - A History of Nostalgia as a United States Identity Ideology in the 1980s" by Lisa Patt is associated with the project.

New Research Group: "Voluntarism"

The chair is pleased to announce the creation of the research group "Voluntariness" at the History Department at Erfurt University. The group, which is funded by the DFG for three years starting in October 2020, is concerned with voluntariness as a political practice in history and the present. The basic assumption of the group is that various types of voluntariness are of central importance for the governance of different societies.

Abstract

Spokseperson of the group isProf. Dr. Jürgen Martschukat

There is a subproject titled "Voluntariness and Political Practice in the Emerging USA" at the Chair of North American History as well. It is being worked on by Pia Herzan (University of Erfurt).

Dr. Vera Kallenberg honored with the Arno Lustiger Price 2019

[Translate to English:] Vera Kallenberg mit Preisurkunde

The Chair of North American History congratulates Dr. Vera Kallenberg for her monograph "Jüdinnen und Juden in der Frankfurter Strafjustiz 1780-1814. Die Nicht-Einheit der jüdischen Geschichte" (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag 2018. https://bit.ly/2KQG6Gm) being honored with the Arno Lustiger Price 2019 for academic excellence in the field of german-jewish history by the Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main, as part of the Rosl und Paul Arnsberg Price.

New research project supported by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation on "Photography and Counterhegemonic Subject Positions in the Philippine-American War (1899-1902)".

The Chair of North American History thanks the Fritz Thyssen Foundation for supporting Dr. Silvan Niedermeier's research project "Returning the Colonial Gaze. Photography and Counterhegemonic Subject Positions in the Philippine-American War (1899-1902)".

The 24 months long project started in April 2020.

New DFG-sponsored Research Project: "Armed Self-Defense in Recent America: Intersectional Perspectives"

The department is delighted by the support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) for the research project "Armed Self-Defense in Recent America: Intersectional Perspectives". The cooperation with Prof. Barbara Lüthi (Köln University) and Prof. Simon Wendt (Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main).

The research project started in October 2018.

International Graduate School "Resonant Self–World Relations in Ancient and Modern Socio-Religious Practices"

Together with colleagues from the Faculty of Philosophy and the Max Weber College at the University of Erfurt, Jürgen Martschukat is a Principal Investigator in an international research training group at the University of Erfurt in cooperation with the University of Graz on the topic of "Resonant Self-World Relations in Ancient and Modern Socio-Religious Practices". Interested persons from the field of modern and especially North American history should pay attention to event announcements and regular job advertisements.

Publicity

In Media

  • Interview with Jürgen Martschukat with the title "Fitnesskult ist hochpolitisch" at taz Online from 08.02.2021: https://bit.ly/2Nbh7Bf
  • Interview with Jürgen Martschukat on his new book "The Age of Fitness" with Radio New Zealand from 31.01.2021: https://bit.ly/3j3ZBe9
  • Series of conversations by the Deutsches Historisches Museum with Jürgen Martschukat about the history of masculinities: https://bit.ly/3oCorCU
  • Interview with Jürgen Martschukat on the history and present of U.S. presidential inaugurations with Deutsche Welle, from 19.01.2021: https://bit.ly/3nYdk77
  • Review of the english edition of Jürgen Martschukats "The Age of Fitness" at The Guardian website from 02.01.2021: https://bit.ly/2M6C7sc
  • Interview with Jürgen Martschukat on his book "The Age of the Fitness" with Radio Corax from 23.11.2020: https://bit.ly/2IZi9yJ / https://bit.ly/3l06wnP
  • Lecture via livestream at the Stiftung Demokratie Saarland by Jürgen Martschukat on his book "The Age of Fitness" with the title "The Century of Fitness. About the Importance of the Body in the Neoliberal Age" from 23.11.2020: https://bit.ly/3m0lXxA
  • Guest contribution in the WortMelder of Erfurt University by Jürgen Martschukat on the 2020 United States Presidential Elections and the Electoral College from November 9th, 2020: https://bit.ly/32q91cT
  • Interview with Jürgen Martschukat on the 2020 United States Presidential Elections with Studio 9 (Deutschlandradio) on November 11th, 2020 at 5.15 pm: https://bit.ly/2Ia2A6B
  • Interview with Melanie Woitas about Jane Fonda's aerobic fitness videos under the title "Stulpen, Schweißband, Leotards" at Tagesspiegel Online from 07/19/2020: https://bit.ly/3sBKzjd
  • Webtalk by Silvan Niedermeier on the subject "Deadly Racism: Continuinities and Development of Police Violence in the USA" (06/25/2020): https://bit.ly/2VAwsws
  • Jürgen Martschukats appearance on the SWR Nachtcafé with the subject My Body - My Asset? (06/26/2020): https://bit.ly/3ga3bki(interview starts at 31:35)
  • Review of Timo Bonengels dissertation "Risky Substances: The 'War on Drugs' in the USA (1963-1992)" in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung by Jürgen Wilzewski: https://bit.ly/2ARYts7
  • Interview with Jürgen Martschukat about his new book The Age of Fitness on Radio SRF with the title Fitness as zeitgeist (01/14/2020): https://bit.ly/2uLNoFK
  • Interview with Jürgen Martschukat about his new book The Age of Fitness with the RBB Zwölfzweiundzwanzig-Podcast (01/11/2020): https://bit.ly/2FQihvd
  • Review of Jürgen Martschukats new book The Age of Fitness by Stefan Scholl for H-Soz-Kult (11/05/2019): https://bit.ly/34tF6ir
  • Interview with Jürgen Martschukat about his new book The Age of Fitness for Deutschlandfunk Kultur - Tacheles Podcast (10/26/2019) with the title Slim bodies for slim coporations: https://bit.ly/348ESx1
  • Article in Süddeutsche Zeitung Online (10/14/2019) about Jürgen Martschukats new book The Age of Fitness with the title Self-loathing makes you fit: https://bit.ly/2osV4dp
  • Article in ZEIT Online (10/11/2019) about Jürgen Martschukats new book The Age of Fitness with the title Running is the citizen's primary duty: https://bit.ly/36dW7Pb
  • Article in Der SPIEGEL online (09/27/2019) and in print (2019/40, 09/28/2019) about Jürgen Martschukats new book The Age of Fitness with the title Rambo would do Crossfit: https://bit.ly/2omd1Kc
  • Interview with Nina Mackert for the MDR Thüringen Journal (07/14/2019) with the title In plenty unpopular: The Calorie
  • Deutschlandfunk - Aus Kultur- und Sozialwissenschaften interview with Jürgen Martschukat (01/17/2019) on Pressure to perform in one's leisure time
  • WDR/NDR-Zeitzeichen interview with Nina Mackert (12/14/2018) on John Harvey Kellogg
  • Interview with Nina Mackert for Deutschlandfunk on How the body became a cult object (12/13/2018): https://bit.ly/2CkqsyU
  • Interview with Jürgen Martschukat for WortMelder/University of Erfurt on Excellenzcluster on Adipositas (06/12/18): https://bit.ly/2yl4zzh
  • Interview with Jürgen Martschukat for ZEIT ONLINE (06/10/18)on Fitness and the female "Normkörper": https://bit.ly/2yn1Cyq
  • Interview with Jürgen Martschukat for Deutschlandradio (02/21/2018) on protest against US-gunlaws: http://bit.ly/2HF3LGh

Recent Publications

  • Jürgen Martschukat, The Age of Fitness: How the Body Came to Symbolize Success and Achievement. Cambridge: Polity 2021. https://bit.ly/3nZRXlU
  • Pia Beumer, „Vigi­lante Spirit“: Vom ameri­ka­ni­schen Recht auf Land, Waffen und Selbst­ver­tei­di­gung, in: Geschichte der Gegenwart (13.12.2020): https://bit.ly/3oVOC8e
  • Jürgen Martschukat, „I can’t breathe.“ Atemnot als Normal­zu­stand, in: Geschichte der Gegenwart (21.10.2020): https://bit.ly/2J3ZJwL
  • Bonengel, Timo, Riskante Substanzen. Der "War on Drugs" in den USA (1963-1992). Frankfurt a. M./New York: Campus 2020. https://bit.ly/2K6bM9E
  • Jürgen Martschukat, Das Zeitalter der Fitness. Wie der Körper zum Zeichen für Erfolg und Leistung wurde. Frankfurt/M.: S. Fischer 2019. https://bit.ly/3bqg0VL
  • Nina Mackert/Jürgen Martschukat (eds.), Critical Ability History, Theme Issue, Rethinking History 23,2 (2019).
  • Nina Mackert/Jürgen Martschukat, Introduction: Critical Ability History, in: Rethinking History 23,2 (2019): 131-137.
  • Jürgen Martschukat, The Age of Fitness. The Power of Ability in Recent American History, in: Rethinking History 23,2 (2019): 157-174.
  • Nina Mackert, Work, Burn, Eat. Abilities of Calorimetric Bodies in the USA, 1890–1930, in: Rethinking History 23,2 (2019): 189-209.
  • Melanie Woitas, „We become what we do!“. Eine Geschichte des Aerobics in den USA. Phil. Diss. Erfurt, 2019. https://bit.ly/2S5ZdhQ
  • Silvan Niedermeier, Forced Confessions: Police Toture and the African American Struggle for Civil Rights in the 1930s and 1940 South, in: Amy Louise Wood und Natalie J. Ring (Hg.), Crime and Punishment in the Jim Crow South. Urbana: University of Illinois Press 2019, 58-78.
  • Barbara Lüthi, Silvan Niedermeier, You Jae Lee (Hg.), Travelling Things - Dinge auf Wanderungen. Comparativ. Zeitschrift für Globalgeschichte und vergleichende Gesellschaftsforschung, 28, 3 (2018).
  • Silvan Niedermeier, Colonial Self-Positioning. Approaching the Snapshots of an American Woman in the Philippines (1900-1912), in: Ulrike Lindner und Dörte Lerp (Hg.), New Perspectives on the History of Gender and Empire. Comparative and Global Approaches. London: Bloomsburg Academic 2018, 115-148.
  • David Sittler, Straßenverkehr und soziale Sichtbarkeit. Das Massenmedium Straße in Chicago 1900-1930. Baden-Baden: Nomos 2018. https://bit.ly/2CUDQdQ
  • Melanie Woitas, "Go for the burn!" Jane Fondas Aerobic-Videos und die Entstehung des aerobic body, in: Stefan Scholl (Hg.), Körperführung. Historische Perspektiven auf das Verhältnis von Biopolitik und Sport. Frankfurt/M.: Campus 2018, 291-312.
  • Stefanie Büttner, Laura-Elena Keck, "The Great American Love Affair". US-amerikanische Kochbücher der 1960er- und 1970er Jahre, in: Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History, Online Ausgabe, 15 (2018), H. 1. https://bit.ly/2qsQeKs
  • Jürgen Martschukat/Bryant Simon (Hg.), Food, Power, & Agency. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, mit Beiträgen u.a. von Nina Mackert und Jürgen Martschukat. http://bit.ly/2rs0NAp
  • Silvan Niedermeier, Intimacy and Annihilation: Approaching the Enforcement of U.S. Colonial Rule in the Southern Philippines through a Private Photograph Collection, in: InVisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture (IVC), Issue 25: Security and Visibility (2017). http://bit.ly/2soVcet

Contact

Postal address:

 

Universität Erfurt

Lehrstuhl Nordamerikanische Geschichte

Postfach 900211

99105 Erfurt

On campus address:

Campus der Universität Erfurt

Lehrgebäude IV

Nordhäuser Straße 63

99089 Erfurt