Work experience

ORCID: 000– 0003– 3455– 5410

10.2024
gemeinsame Berufung: Direktorin der Martin– Opitz– Bibliothek Herne (An– Institut der Ruhr– Universität) und Professur für Deutsche Kultur und Geschichte im östlichen Europa an der Ruhr– Universität Bochum

4.2019 – 3.2020    
Vertretung der Professur „Geschichte und ihre Didaktik“ an der Bergischen Universität Wuppertal

4.– 9.2018    
Vertretung der Professur „Neuere und Neueste Geschichte“ an der Bergischen Universität Wuppertal

10.2017 – 3.2018    
Vertretung der Professur „Geschichte und ihre Didaktik“ an der Bergischen Universität Wuppertal

2003 – 2024
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Herder– Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung – Institut der Leibniz– Gemeinschaft, 
2009 – 2024 Leiterin der Abteilung Wissenschaftsforum

2004 – 2018    
Lehrbeauftragte an der Philipps– Universität Marburg, Fachbereich 6 Geschichte und Kulturwissenschaften

10.2002 – 3.2003    
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Historischen Seminar in Vertretung der Juniorprofessur Europastudien, Heinrich– Heine– Universit

1996 – 2007    
Lehrbeauftragte am Historischen Seminar der Heinrich– Heine– Universität, Düsseldorf

2000 – 2008    
Dozentin bei der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sozialpädagogik und Gesellschaftsbildung e.V. (ASG), Düsseldorf

Academic education

2000    
PhD, subject of dissertation: "The Piłsudski cult and its significance for the Polish state 1926-1939" (Marburg 2002)

1994-2000    
PhD studies in East European History, Modern History and Yiddish Studies at the Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf. Periods of research in Warsaw, Cracow and New York. 

1994
MA-hesis on "the established theatre in Warsaw, Cracow and Poznan as a place for the formation of national consciousness and identity (1815 - 1846/48)"

1989-1994    
Studied Eastern European and Modern History and Political Science at the Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf.

Committees

2018-2026 
Co – speaker of the professional group history of the German Association for East European Studies (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde, DGO)

since 2013 
Board member of the German Union of Historians on Eastern Europe (VOH), 2017-2025 Vice-Chair, since 2025 Chair

2006-2007 
Member of the Women's Representatives' Council of the Leibniz-Association

2005-2009 
Women's Representative of the Herder-Institute

2011-2024 
Research Representative of the Herder-Institute

Major Projects

2024-2028    
Cost Action: CA23419 „Democratization at Stake? Comparing Anti-Gender Politics in CEE and NME”

2024-2027     
DFG-AHRC Grant: „Subjectivities of Owning Land. Land-Redistribution and the Nation State in the Baltics Across the 20th Century”

2019-2022
„Familiy Planning” in East Central Europe from the Middle of 19th Century until the Legalisation of the “Pill” (BMBF 01UC1902)

2017-2022 
PI of B06 Loyality and Minority Conflicts in the Baltics of the Loewe-Project: Conflict Regions in Eastern Europe

2014-2025    
PI of A06 „Securitization and Discourses on Rights of Minorities and Majorities in East Central Europe in the 19th and 20th Century” of DFG transregional Collaborative Research Cluster (SFB / TRR) 138 „Dynamics of Security. Types of Securitization from a Historical Perspective“

Grants and awars

2026        
Award: “Zeitgeschichte Digital” (Contemporary History Digital) in the category of science communication for the story map “On the Road to Freedom. Freedom Movements in Eastern Europe 1989-1991” (by the Friendes and Supporter of the Centrum for Contemporary History)

1995 – 2005
sevel travel grants of the German Historical Institute in Warsaw

1995 – 1998    
grant for studies of Konrad – Adenauer – Foundation

1989 – 1994    
PhD grant of Konrad – Adenauer – Stiftung

Fields of research

• history of East Central Europe, particularly Poland, in 19th and 20th century;
• history of ethnic minorities in Eastern Europe, particularly of Germans and Jews, entangled history
• historical security and conflict studies
• nation building, national and regional identities
• gender and family history, “family planning” in Eastern Europe since the 19th century; 
• political norms and societal values in historical perspective
• urban history of the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly municipal administrative history during the Habsburg monarchy; emerging cities in Eastern Europe, history of the city of Lviv in the 19th century;
• memory politics, historical cultures

Co-editor

• Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa– Forschung / Journal of East Central European Studies (editor in chief)
• Moderne Stadtgeschichte (Co-managing editor)
• Střed (Editorial Board)
• New Perspectives on Central and Eastern European Studies (Berghahn Books)
• Crisis, Conflict and Security in Central and Eastern Europe (Central European University bzw. Amsterdam University Press)
• Geschlecht. Macht. Staat (Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Bd. 1 für Ende 2024 erwartet)
• Co–editor of the outreach portal copernico.eu
• Editor and academic management of the teaching modules: „Dokumente und Materialien zur ostmitteleuropäischen Geschichte“; URL: https://www.herder– institut.de/digitale– angebote/dokumente– und– materialien.html (1.1.2022) (2006-2024)
• Academic management and concept of the country portals (“Länderportale”) of historicum.net (2005– 2010)