Staff of the Historical Institute: Prof. Dr. Ute Schneider
Function and Contact
Professor at the Chair of
Email: ute.schneider@uni-due.de
Secretary: elke.spliessgardt@uni-due.de
Currently represented by: lisa.olbering@stud.uni-due.de
Research Projects and ORCiD
College for Social Sciences and Humanities
For an overview of the academic career, additional roles, research, and publications: ORCiD
Research Focus
Social, Gender, Legal and Cultural History of Europe in the 19th and 20th century
History of Science (cartographic visualizations, cartography, geography since early modern times)
Problems of modernity and its processes
Methodology of historical science
Qualifications
Since October 2007
Professor of Social and Economic History at the University of Duisburg-Essen
2004-2007
Stand-in professorships in Saarbrücken, Braunschweig, Vechta and Cologne
2002-2007
Lecturer (Hochschuldozentin) at the Technical University of Darmstadt
2002
Habilitation
1996-2002
Scientific researcher at the Chair of Modern and Contemporary History, Darmstadt
1990-2007
Editor of the journal "Neue Politische Literatur" at the Technical University of Darmstadt
1993
Doctorate at the Technical University of Darmstadt
1981-1987
Studies of Modern and Medieval History and General Linguistics at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf
Functions
Since 2024
Member of the 4Memory-Academic Advisory Board
Since 2023
Member of the Scientific Board of the College for Social Sciences and Humanities of the Research Alliance Ruhr
Since January 2022
Leading Principal Investigator of the interdisciplinary research project "Cultures of Compromise" together with the Universities of Münster and Bochum
October 2019 - September 2020
Senior Fellowship of the Institute for Advanced Study in History (Historisches Kolleg), München
Since 2020
Elected Speaker of the Review Board 102 (History) of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft - DFG)
Since 01.03.2018
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History, Deputy Chairwoman since 2020
2017-2018
Acting director of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut - KWI), Essen
Since 2016
Elected Member of the Review Board 102 (History) of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft - DFG)
Since 2016
Member of the research group Legal Studies and Contemporary History ("Rechtswissenschaft und Zeitgeschichte") at the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz
2014-2020
Member of the board of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities Essen (Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut - KWI)
Since 2014
Member of the doctoral committee of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes)
Since 2013
Member of the scientific advisory board of the House for the History of the Ruhr (Chairwoman since 2022), Stiftung Geschichte des Ruhrgebiets, Bochum
2013-2014
Member of the scientific advisory board of the LVR project 1914 - Mitten in Europa
(see also the congress "Aggression and Avantgarde" on this project: http://www.kongress1914.lvr.de/)
2010-2014
Elected Member of the Board of the German Historians Association (Verbands der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands)
Since 2010
Co-editor of "Düsseldorfer Schriften zur Neueren Landesgeschichte"
Since 2009
Member of the scientific advisory board of the Austrian Journal of Historical Studies
Since 2008
Co-editor of the journal Neue Politischen Literatur
Since 2008
Member of the Arbeitskreis für Moderne Sozialgeschichte e.V.
Since 2006
Co-editor of the book series Geschichte erzählt
Since 1992
Member of the Brauweiler Kreis e.V.
Research Projects
"Cultures of Compromise"
The interdisciplinary research project “Cultures of Compromise” explores the socio-economic, politico-legal and cultural preconditions of compromise across epochs and cultures. Thus, the project addresses a major research gap, as there has been hardly any systematic research on the factors which enable or promote compromise.
More than 30 researchers from different disciplines at the universities of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), Münster (WWU) and Bochum (RUB) have combined their expertise to examine the preconditions of compromise not only in the contemporary societies of Western democracies, but also in societies of past eras and other cultural contexts, with Japan and Israel as the cases of comparison.
By generating insight into the variance of compromise practices and their preconditions, the project creates important knowledge for reflection and action for contemporary societies, in which increasing polarisation and decreasing willingness to compromise are currently eroding possibilities to settle conflicts through compromise. Therefore, the transfer of knowledge is of great importance, which the network shapes in particular with innovative formats of (further) teacher training as well as citizen science and participatory approaches.
Modeling the World. The International Map of the World (IMW) in the Age of Territoriality (1860-1970)
The starting point of the planned monograph is the thesis that maps are of outstanding importance for political action in the 20th century. The focus is on the International Map of the World (IMW) which reflects central developments of this century.
‘Active Promotion of the European Ideal’? – European References in German-British Town Twinning
Funded by the German Research Foundation, the project examines the European dimension of town twinning links and its significance in the wide array of political, economic, diplomatic and cultural processes and interests. The project therefore contributes to research into Europe’s wider societal perception, negotiation and performance.
Editor: Nina Szidat
DFG-Graduate School "Provision, foresight, and prediction: Contingency management through future action." (DFG-Graduiertenkolleg 1919: "Vorsorge, Voraussicht, Vorhersage. Kontingenzbewältigung durch Zukunftshandeln")
How can people cope with uncertainty through action and their perspective on the relationship between present thinking, action, and an uncertain future? Historians at the University of Duisburg-Essen study these questions in their research on "Provision, foresight, and prediction: Contingency management through future action." They examine how individuals' active attitudes towards the future and the resulting action options have evolved throughout history. By comparing different cultures and time periods, their goal is to contribute to the ongoing discourse on modernity. The Graduate School focuses on the cultures of Greco-Roman antiquity, medieval and early modern Europe, and the globalized world since the 18th century.
Finished Research Projects
Gerardus Mercator: Edition and Translation of his Correspondence
The cartographer Gerardus Mercator wrote and received more than 200 letters throughout his life. In this project, surviving letters are re-edited and in large part translated from Latin to German for the first time.
Editor: Nils Bennemann
The edition was published in 2022 by wbg academic Verlag.
The Transformation from „Uni-less Spaces“ to a „Uni-Landscape“ - the North Rhine-Westphalian concept of the Gesamthochschule, 1965-1985
The project analyses the concept of the novel ‘Gesamthochschule’ (a combination of regular universities and universities of applied sciences) that was initiated in 1972. Related to this were planning and space creation processes between 1965-1985 for five such universities that were imagined to be a “landscape of universities“ in the federate state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Editor: Timo Celebi
Mercator: Science and Transfer of Knowledge
Ute Schneider/Stefan Brakensiek (Hrsg.): Gerhard Mercator. Wissenschaft und Wissenstransfer, Darmstadt 2015. Which significance does Mercator’s work have for us today? „Gerardus Mercator: Science and Transfer of Knowledge“ was the title of a conference that was dedicated – among other matters – to this question.
Compendium of Modernity
Friedrich Jaeger/Wolfgang Knöbl/Ute Schneider (Hrsg.): Handbuch Moderneforschung, Stuttgart 2015. Given this current research environment, the handbook opens up a new perspective. The focus is on the question of how central disciplines have taken up and discussed "Modernity".
Further Information: Metzler-Verlag.
Dissertations
An overview of supervised doctoral candidates can be found here.