Current doctoral projects
Maximilian Krogoll
Affliction, infirmity and the body in the 18th century - the example of J.H.S. Formey
The project centres on the correspondence of the French Reformed pastor and secretary of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Jean Henri Samuel Formey (1711-1797). Strongly embedded in the Enlightenment and Protestantism, this correspondence, which lasted almost a century, allows the discussion of an important question for the history of culture and mentality that has not yet been sufficiently analysed, namely the perception and communication of the body, affliction, infirmity and death in the "milieu" of Protestant pastors. Pastors reached large sections of 18th century society "from the pulpit" and thus had a decisive influence on perceptions of the body, illness and death and the associated practices. As head of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Jean Henri Samuel Formey was also closely connected with some of the outstanding scholars of his time. The project hypothesises that Formey's ideas and perceptions of the body, affliction, infirmity and death emerged in a supra-regional and transnational context, between the Enlightenment and local pastoral practice. These ideas were also passed on within this context. Formey's function as a gatekeeper of knowledge and perception is of particular importance here.
Current Project: Book Market in Negotiation - Communication and Motivation in the Book Trade in Leipzig 1550-1650
The project addresses the Leipzig book market in the period between 1550 and 1650. It looks into negotiation and communication processes and how they constituted this early modern book market. The study focuses on the actors and institutions involved in the book market, their agendas, how they negotiated the latter within the framework of changing regulations and norms as well as social structures.
Current Project: Colonial Crisis and National-Imperial Identity. The „Sepoy Mutiny“ 1857 and National and Imperial Discourse in the United Kingdom.
Research Interests: British Imperial History, Political History, History of Ideas, Theory of History
Geographical Area: United Kingdom, India
This research project focuses on the so-called „Sepoy Mutiny“, a military crisis in British India in 1857, which has been perceived as a „national“ and an „imperial“ crisis. It had an invigorating effect on discourse about nation and empire and shaped the relationship between the Empire and „Nations within the Empire“ in many ways.
How did concepts of nation and empire and their relationship to each other develop bevor the outbreak of the „Mutiny“? What was the situation of other nations (for example the Scottish and Irish) within the British Empire? Were there elements of an emerging „Indian Nation“ or something comparable during the events of 1857? What was perceived as „national“ and „imperial“? Were there intersections in the semantics of these terms and how did this change due to the „Indian Mutiny“? Was this event perceived in the United Kingdom as the beginning of an „Indian Nationalism“ and a danger for the imperial future? What were the roles of former imperial crises in that context? In what kind of framework did processes of identification and alteration take place? These and other questions are at the centre of an analysis, which rests on a variety of different sources, including parliamentary debates, records of the east India corporation, novels, plays and paintings.
Co-Advisor:
First supervisor: Prof. Dr. Volker Depkat (American Studies, Regensburg)
Kingston as a Hub of Refugee Movements during the Age of Revolutions, c. 1780-1820
PhD project within the ERC project "Atlantic Exiles"
First supervisor: Prof. Dr. Jan C. Jansen (Modern history, Tübingen)
Mining Economy and Spatial Construction. The Expansion of Early Modern Rule in European Mining Regions
First supervisor: Prof. Dr. Martin Ott (Franconian regional history, Bayreuth)