Dr. habil. Florian Kühnel
Personal Details:
Florian Kühnel studied historical anthropology in Freiburg (M.A. 2007) and then completed his doctoral degree in early modern and modern history in Münster (2012) where he was a member of the graduate school of the cluster of excellence "Religion and Politics". From 2011 to 2016 he was a research associate at the chair for Early Modern European History at the Humboldt-University Berlin. Afterwards, he led the DFG-project "Experts of Diplomacy. The English Embassy Secretaries in Early Modern Istanbul" at the chair for Medieval and Early Modern Cultural History in Göttingen. He held research fellowships in Gotha (Herzog-Ernst), London (German Historical Institute & Gerda Henkel) and Paris (German Historical Institute). Florian Kühnel joined the Leibniz Institute of European History in March 2022. In January 2024 he completed his habilitation in early modern and modern history at the Humboldt-University Berlin.
Research Interests:
Historical anthropology
Cultural history of diplomacy (esp. 'non-ambassadorial diplomacy', diplomacy and gender)
Cultural encounters between Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire
Honour, dishonour, infamy
Historical intersectional analysis
Selected Publications:
Gender and Diplomacy in the Early Modern Period, Special Issue The International History Review, Vol. 44/5, 2022 (zus. mit Ruggero Sciuto).
Amt und Person. Botschaftssekretäre und Normenkonkurrenz im frühneuzeitlichen Istanbul, in: Florian Kühnel / Christine Vogel (ed.): Zwischen Domestik und Staatsdiener. Botschaftssekretäre in den frühneuzeitlichen Außenbeziehungen, Köln / Weimar / Wien 2021, p. 169–199 (Externa 15).
(together with Matthias Bähr) Plädoyer für eine Historische Intersektionsanalyse, in: Matthias Bähr / Florian Kühnel (ed.): Verschränkte Ungleichheit. Praktiken der Intersektionalität in der Frühen Neuzeit, Berlin 2018, p. 9–37 (ZHF. Beihefte 56).
Kranke Ehre? Adlige Selbsttötung im Übergang zur Moderne, München 2013. [= Dissertation]
Research projects:
Difference in Everyday Life. Diplomacy as a Collective Practice in Early Modern Istanbul
The project asks what role difference played in (primarily English) diplomacy in early modern Istanbul. On the one hand, it expands the circle of actors and understands diplomacy as a 'collective practice'. On the other hand, it focuses less on courtly ceremonies and more on everyday diplomatic life.