New Professor of Contemporary History

"Contemporary history aims to research the prehistory of current problems," says Professor Dr Isabel Heinemann, who came to Bayreuth in February 2023 from the University of Münster, where she now holds the W 3 professorship in modern history. "The discipline can provide orientation knowledge for many topics that are currently occupying us, from Holocaust remembrance to international right-wing populism to #metoo."

She had previously worked in Münster as a junior professor and head of an Emmy Noether group of the DFG, then as a professor of contemporary history. Heinemann studied first at the University of Mainz, the Université de Bourgogne in Dijon and finally at the University of Freiburg, where she first earned her Master's degree and then her doctorate in Modern and Contemporary History.

"My main areas of expertise are, firstly, the history of National Socialism and the Holocaust, with a focus on the history of racism and the so-called Germanisation and forced resettlement policy in occupied Europe," says Prof. Dr. Isabel Heinemann. "My second major topic is the history of social change and especially the change of gender norms and family values." In this context, she researches the social history of the USA, but also the gender history of the Federal Republic and the GDR. "I am particularly interested in how gender and family norms shaped people's lives and especially women's attitudes towards democracy in the two different regimes during the Cold War and also after 1989/90," she explains.

"At the University of Bayreuth, I am particularly attracted by the diverse opportunities for cooperation with colleagues on site and the associated creative opportunities - within the History Department and the Faculty of Cultural Studies," Heinemann emphasises. "I am looking forward to networking with the Cluster of Excellence Africa Multiple, where my research on racism and international health feminism offer good points of contact. I am also very interested in the Hans Böckler Foundation's Research Training Group on Intersectionality at the Faculty of Cultural Studies, and I am also looking forward to participating in the new Peace and Conflict Research Network and the BMBF research network for the establishment of a Bavarian Centre for Peace and Conflict Research."

Heinemann wants to develop the Chair of Contemporary History at the University of Bayreuth into a regionally, nationally and internationally visible centre for modern contemporary history research and, to this end, centre it on research into the dynamics of violence, democracies and gender orders in the 20th century.

The focus of teaching will be on core topics of contemporary German history in an international context, i.e. the history of National Socialism and the two World Wars, the history of the Federal Republic and the GDR, the history of the USA in the 20th century, as well as methodological exercises on gender history and the history of knowledge and research colloquia that bring international contemporary history researchers to Bayreuth, but also provide space to discuss students' ongoing theses.

"In terms of research, I would like to continue my ongoing externally funded research projects - on human genetics in the Federal Republic and on the history of anti-feminism in the FRG - at the University of Bayreuth, so I am already bringing part of my research group with me." A first international conference of the Gerda Henkel-funded joint project "Democracy and Gender" is already planned for autumn 2023 in Bayreuth. New research collaborations in the field of gender history, among others with colleagues from the universities of Marburg and Giessen for the cross-disciplinary and cross-epochal analysis of gender and power orders, and with colleagues from the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich for research into the gender history of democracy, are already being planned.

"My vision for contemporary history at the Bayreuth location is modern, internationally and interdisciplinarily networked, excellent research and teaching that critically examines the prehistory of current problematic situations, i.e.: racism, gender discrimination, expulsion and war. The conditions for this are excellent, as are the opportunities for academic cooperation, and I am very much looking forward to this new task," says Heinemann.