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Profile of Research and Teaching
In the German-speaking world, Environmental History is still a little-institutionalized field which is mostly affiliated to the History of Technology. Thus the first professorship of Environmental and Technical History was founded in Hanover in 1994.
The field of research became more differentiated in the 1980s as an academic counterpart to the ecology movement. Therefore Environmental History was initially interested in the 19th and 20th centuries and in exploring the reverse side of industrialization, with a focus on environmental exploitation and destruction.
This is still one of the most important tasks of Environmental History, but since the beginnings of this discipline, other historical areas and spheres have also been included. At the Ruhr-Universität in Bochum, too, a wider range of the epochal field is intended.
The methodology of Environmental History in Bochum draws on several basic approaches in a productive eclecticism ranging from cultural-historical and cultural-theoretical concepts to concepts borrowed from economic history.
The teaching policy is gradually to reach an epochal depth from premodern history, especially the Late Middle Ages, to the present. The research focuses more on the transition from pre-modernity to modernity in the 18th/19th century. In particular, the relationship between insurance history and environmental history is examined: The point of view of insurances regarding dangerous 'nature', which was first practiced in the maritime trade of the 14th century, was universalized in the 17th century. The principle of insurance was transferred regionally and thematically; 'nature' - and especially destructive nature, which could not be controlled by technical means – was to be caught and made plannable and predictable in this way. What was the relationship of those mechanisms of provision and care with older modi of risk management? A further field that is being increasingly developed is the relationship between environmental and colonial history.
Besides the study of environmental history, prof. Zwierlein continues his engagement in 'classical' early modern history.
Contact
Secretariat Anna-Maria Götzelmann
Room GA 6/54
Phone: 0234 / 32-23992
News
The arrest of Ravachol, the French anarchist, on 30th March 1892, from the front page of Le Progrès 10th April 1892
Invitation Seminar Security and Conspiracy Dispositives in Modern History
From the 31st of May until the 1st of June 2012 a conference on Security and Conspiracy Dispositives in Modern History will be hosted by Prof. dr. Beatrice de Graaf (Leiden university - Campus The Hague - Centre for Terrorism and Counterterrorism) and Prof. dr. Cornel Zwierlein (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) at the Campus The Hague.
With this conference a new way of analyzing security history will be introduced and operationalized. Furthermore some of the hypotheses put forward by Prof. dr. Zwierlein and Prof. dr. de Graaf and others concerning the history and structure of the two dispositives will be tested.
Please visit the conference website for detailed information about the conference program, how to register and information on accommodation.
conference website
Now Online: The Research-Database 'Die Ikonographie der brennenden Stadt'
Under the DFG project "Risikozähmung in der Vormoderne" inter alia 530 images of burning cities were collected and digitized. Those images are now availibel as an online research database at the image archive 'prometheus'.
read more
Colloquium on Early Modern and Environmental History
The Colloquium on Early Modern and Environmental History 2012 takes place as a block seminar in conference-style on 18th May 2012, 9am, GABF 04/356.
Consultation Hours in summer term 2012
Monday, 02-04 pm,
there are no consultation hours on 23th April, 28th May and 18th June!
On 14th and 21st May consultation hours are between 10 and 12 am.
Room: GA 4/145
Concerning questions outside consultation hours don't hasitate to contact Prof. Zwierlein per e-mail: cornel.zwierlein@rub.de