Franz Mauelshagen
I am an environmental historian with research and teaching focuses in the areas of climate history, the Anthropocene, "natural" disasters (including risk management), and the history of ecological transformations, from 1500 to the present. Geographically, my strongest expertise is in European and transatlantic (American) history. But at various occasions and in various contexts I have also applied global (comparative) perspectives.
I studied in philosophy, history and international law in Bonn (Germany) and Zurich (Switzerland) and have held postdoctoral research positions at the Universities of Bielefeld (2000 to 2003) and Zurich (2003-2008). Until 2008, I also lectured at the Universities of Bielefeld, Zurich, Berne and St. Gallen. 2008-2014 I was a Senior Fellow at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut (KWI) / Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, Essen (Germany) (2008-2014). Since 2014, I have held Senior Research Fellowships at the Rachel Carson Center (Munich), the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (Potsdam), and the Centre for Global Cooperation Research (Duisburg). 2019/20 I was an invited Mercator Fellow at the SFB 1288, "Practices of Comparison" and coordinator of the Vienna Anthropocene Network.
Phone: +49 (0)201 7204-225
Address: Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities
Goethestraße 31
45128 Essen, Germany
I studied in philosophy, history and international law in Bonn (Germany) and Zurich (Switzerland) and have held postdoctoral research positions at the Universities of Bielefeld (2000 to 2003) and Zurich (2003-2008). Until 2008, I also lectured at the Universities of Bielefeld, Zurich, Berne and St. Gallen. 2008-2014 I was a Senior Fellow at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut (KWI) / Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, Essen (Germany) (2008-2014). Since 2014, I have held Senior Research Fellowships at the Rachel Carson Center (Munich), the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (Potsdam), and the Centre for Global Cooperation Research (Duisburg). 2019/20 I was an invited Mercator Fellow at the SFB 1288, "Practices of Comparison" and coordinator of the Vienna Anthropocene Network.
Phone: +49 (0)201 7204-225
Address: Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities
Goethestraße 31
45128 Essen, Germany
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Books by Franz Mauelshagen
Historical Disasters in Context illustrates how past societies coped with a threatening environment, how societies changed in response to disaster experiences, and how disaster experiences were processed and communicated, both locally and globally. Particular emphasis is put on the realms of science, religion, and politics. International case studies demonstrate that while there are huge differences across cultures in the way people and societies responded to disasters, there are also many commonalities and interactions between different cultures that have the potential to alter the ways people prepare for and react to disasters in future. To explain these relationships and highlight their significance is the purpose of this volume."
Papers by Franz Mauelshagen
The first part of this chapter presents a selection of interview excerpts from our four case studies, focusing on interviewees’ reasons to remain in/ return to disaster-prone areas. The second part introduces the interview method that was designed for this interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research endeavor, the enviro-biographical interview. We conclude by comparing culturally specific aspects of attachment to place from the four case studies."
Historical Disasters in Context illustrates how past societies coped with a threatening environment, how societies changed in response to disaster experiences, and how disaster experiences were processed and communicated, both locally and globally. Particular emphasis is put on the realms of science, religion, and politics. International case studies demonstrate that while there are huge differences across cultures in the way people and societies responded to disasters, there are also many commonalities and interactions between different cultures that have the potential to alter the ways people prepare for and react to disasters in future. To explain these relationships and highlight their significance is the purpose of this volume."
The first part of this chapter presents a selection of interview excerpts from our four case studies, focusing on interviewees’ reasons to remain in/ return to disaster-prone areas. The second part introduces the interview method that was designed for this interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research endeavor, the enviro-biographical interview. We conclude by comparing culturally specific aspects of attachment to place from the four case studies."
Against H&G, I argue that looking for “precursor concepts” does not at all diminish the originality of the “Anthropocene” idea, unless results are presented with that specific intention. What makes intellectual history valuable is that it helps us understand the historical emergence of the idea that human beings / societies have the capacity to change the environment on a global scale. In order to define the framework in which such a history becomes meaningful for the present, part 1 of this paper reviews the Anthropocene debate with regard to controversies about the conceptualisation of human agency and Anthropocene chronology. Part 2 briefly surveys “antecedents” of the Anthropocene concept, adding new findings to the debate. Finally, in part 3 I argue that the — by no means accidental — coincidence between Buffon’s suggestion of an “Era of Mankind” in natural history and the onset of industrialisation supports a chronology of the Anthropocene that starts with the Industrial era / late-18th-century enlightenment. However, the character of human environmental modification Buffon had in mind when he made his suggestion was not yet influenced by industrialisation. It was colonialism and the expansion of western civilisation connected with it that he referred to. It was in that context that Hugh Williamson first spoke of a “change of climate” in North America — a modification of pre-Columbian climates through human effort (deforestation and “desiccation”), which became programmatic in many colonies.
Exploring the historical in the contemporary and the contemporary in the historical of human-environment relations", Humboldt University, Berlin, January 17, 2017
Termin: 20.11.2014, 18:00 Uhr im Hauptgebäude der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Raum M218
PI: Gerrit Jasper Schenk
Co-PI: Franz Mauelshagen
Duration: 2005-2012
The objective of the scientific network was the historical analysis of disasters from a crosscultural perspective. The 12 members of the network were mainly historians of different ages and specializations as well as historically operating scientists from neighboring disciplines (Oriental studies, sinology, geography).