Chair of Modern and Contemporary History – Prof. Dr. Manuel Borutta

Professorship for Modern and Contemporary History

The professorship is dedicated to the history of the Mediterranean (18 to 21 centuries). The region is conceived as a contact zone between Africa, Asia and Europe, a zone, which was closely networked even before modern globalisation and where borders have been moved again and again. Mediterranean History is thus conceived as an approach to connect European and non-European perspectives in a fruitful way. Current thematic foci of the research group are the history of empires, of colonialism and decolonialisation, of maritime work and mobility as well as the theory and history of times. The group coordinates the  Mediterranean Platform, the DFG network Modern Mediterranean and the Master Course Mediterranean History.
_{image: © Wikimedia Commons}

M.A. Mediterranean History

In winter term 2024/25, an international Master's programme Mediterranean History will start at the University of Konstanz. As a research-oriented programme in English, it provides a cross-epochal understanding of Mediterranean societies.
Further details

 

This interdisziplinary colloquium provides a forum for academic exchange where current research approaches of Modern and Contemporary History, Contemporary History, Eastern European History as well as the History of Economics are being discussed. It is also open for students.
 

The Modern Mediterranean: Dynamics of a World Region 1800 | 2000

Due to current conflicts, crises and wars, the Mediterranean is back on the agenda of the Humanities and the social sciences. Yet, in the field of modern history this paradigm is almost absent. The DFG research network “The Modern Mediterranean: Dynamics of a World Region 1800 | 2000” therefore aims to transcend the fragmentation of separate historiographies and to get a more integrated view of the modern period of this region. It focuses on the dynamics and transformations of the region in the 19th and 20th centuries. Instead of taking the Mediterranean as a natural given, the network will explore how this space was invented and shaped in the modern age. Against myths of Mediterranean unity, continuity and singularity, the region is conceived as a contact zone between Africa, Asia and Europe that was connected to and is comparable with other regions of the world.

Mediterranean Entanglements. Algeria and France between colonization and decolonization

In his current book project Manuel Borutta explores political, economical, demographic and cultural connections and interactions between the mediterranean countries on the periphery of  Europe and Africa.  His book aims to show that Southern Europe and North Africa were so closely linked by Mediterranean entanglements that they cannot be analyzed separately..

Bild: @ Elisée Reclus, Nouvelle géographie universelle. La terre et les hommes, Bd. 1, L'Europe méridionale, Paris 1876: 5.

Die Gleichzeitigkeit des Ungleichzeitigen

Ziel des Projekts ist es, einen grundsätzlichen Beitrag zur Zeiten-Geschichte der Industriemoderne zu liefern. Der Mehrwert des Projekts gründet darüber hinaus in dem Versuch, die Frageperspektive der Chronopolitik in der Geschichtswissenschaft zu etablieren und zu einer Systematisierung von Pluritemporalität beizutragen.

_{Illustration aus: Lyell, Charles: Principles of Geology. Volume III. With a new introduction by Martin J. S. Rudwick, Chicago, IL 1991 [Or. 1833].}

Mediterranean Disentanglement: The Southern Adriatic in the Age of European Territorialization, 1718-1856

Instead of studying Southeastern Europe exclusively as a terrestrial space, my project proposes to approach the history of Southeastern Europe through a maritime perspective, as the region is surrounded by five seas that have strongly influenced its history. The Adriatic Sea was the central communication space between North Africa, Southeastern Europe, and Central Europe. Read more ...

_{Image: Old serpentine road that used to connect the Ottoman/Montegrin hinterland with the Venezian/Habsburg coasts and the Adriatic Sea (J.M., 2022)}