In the cultural and religious history of Saint Patrick’s Purgatory—a centuries-old Catholic pilgrim site situated on Station Island within the waters of Donegal’s Lough Derg—the mass drowning of 1795 stands out. The aftermath was devastating, stamping a lasting mark on the memory of place. The disaster continues to be complicated by its entangl…[Read more]

The annexation of Crimea is not an ordinary event in contemporary international relations. Since WWII, there has been no precedent in Europe when one state under dubious premises has forcefully annexed a part of another state. This article scrutinizes the Crimean case in the context of the ongoing Ukrainian crisis and uncovers the rationale behind…[Read more]

The article aims to uncover the nature and distinctive features of the contemporary messianic narrations in the Russian public discourse, as well as estimate their impact on the actual policy-making. For this reason, the article scrutinizes the political philosophy of Aleksandr Dugin, Nataliia Narochnitskaia, Egor Kholmogorov, and Vadim…[Read more]

Selections from DE LA MANUFACTURE AU MUR: Pour une histoire matérielle du papier peint 1770-1914 (From the Workshop to the Wall – Toward a Material History of Wallpaper 1770-1914) a thesis by Dr. Bernard Jacqué, University of Lyon, 2003. Translated by Robert M. Kelly.

PDF 3: The Scenic Revival of the Twentieth Century

Selections from DE LA MANUFACTURE AU MUR: Pour une histoire matérielle du papier peint 1770-1914 (From the Workshop to the Wall – Toward a Material History of Wallpaper 1770-1914) a thesis by Dr. Bernard Jacqué, University of Lyon (2003). Translated by Robert M. Kelly.

PDF 2: Zuber’s “Indépendance” (1853), a hand-painted restatement of “Scenic…[Read more]

Selections from DE LA MANUFACTURE AU MUR: Pour une histoire matérielle du papier peint 1770-1914 (From the Workshop to the Wall – Toward a Material History of Wallpaper 1770-1914) a thesis by Dr. Bernard Jacqué, University of Lyon (2003). Translated by Robert M. Kelly.

PDF 1: A Historiography of Wallpaper

Historic Nova Scotia is a digital humanities and public history project that aims to bring community histories to life online (https://historicnovascotia.ca/). This paper will explore how collaborative, digital-storytelling can help bridge the gap between heritage theory and practice. We will provide an overview of the project followed by specific…[Read more]

Anton Pannekoek (1873-1960), prominent astronomer and world-renowned socialist theorist, stood at the nexus of the revolutions in politics, science and the arts of the early twentieth century. His astronomy was uniquely visual and highly innovative, while his politics were radical. Anton Pannekoek: Ways of Viewing Science and Society collects…[Read more]

The genealogy of board games in Britain is also an expression of its imperial past. Built on colonialist and orientalist tropes that reinforce a hierarchy of race, their legacy is still discernible in the worlds created for the games played today.

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An updated version of my Portolan piece from 2018.

The chapter deals with the image of the personal union between Saxony and Poland as portrayed in the novels of the Polish writer Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, who emigrated to the Saxon capital of Dresden in the 19th century. His so called Saxon Novels are an important source for popular conceptions of history until today.

Georg Leibbrandt (1899-1982), one of the leading figures in the NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs and the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, claimed his status as an expert for questions concerning Eastern Europe on the basis of his origin: Born as a Volksdeutscher in the Ukraine, he devoted himself early to racial thinking and to…[Read more]

Monarchy – Republic – Dictatorship. The District of Görlitz between 1900 and 1939

The article deals with the images and perceptions of Paris and London as seen by German intellectuals in the era of the French revolution. It discusses the key concepts “freedom” and “equality”, using the examples of Joachim Heinrich Campe and Johann Wilhelm von Archenholz.

The chapter gives a biographic account of Georg Leibbrandt (1899-1982), one of the leading figures in the NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs and the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories. It deals especially with his involvement with the infamous Wannsee conference of 1942.

The articles of the volume deal with the German-Polish relations in and after World War I until the first years of the Nazi regime.

The article deals with the different images and perceptions leading figures of the Nazi regime made themselves of Russia, and with their political consequences. A special focus lies on those of Adolf Hitler, Jospeh Goebbels, and Alfred Rosenberg.

This study presents the results of a marine geophysical survey performed in the Igaliku fjord in southern Greenland in order to understand the harbour setting of the former Norse settlement Garðar (modern Igaliku). The aims of the survey were (a) to reconstruct the former coastline during the first centuries of the Norse settlement period (c.…[Read more]

This article traces the attempts by the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries to devolve economic powers to the regions and the ultimate failure of this project, which was a contributing factor to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The abstract of my doctoral dissertation, which I defended on December 2018 at the University of Washington, with distinction.

Germany today is experiencing the strongest upsurge of right-wing populism since the second world war, most notably with the rise of Pegida and Alternative für Deutschland. Yet wealthy global cities like Hamburg continue to present themselves as the gatekeepers of liberal progress and cosmopolitan openness. This article argues that Hamburg’s ur…[Read more]