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PD Dr. Thomas Weller

Member of the academic staff, Department of History
Room: 01 216
Phone: +49 6131 39 30310
Fax: +49 6131 39 21050

E-Mail


Personal Details:

Born in 1969 in Leverkusen, Thomas Weller studied History, German and Spanish Language and Literature, and Educational Science at the universities of Cologne and Seville. He qualified as a secondary school teacher in 1999 and received a doctoral degree in History from the University of Münster in 2004.
From 2000 to 2008, he was a researcher at the Collaborative Research Centre 496 (SFB 496) "Symbolic Communication and Social Value Systems" at the University of Münster. Since June 2008, he has been a member of the academic staff at the Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG), Mainz. 2022 Habilitation and award of the venia legendi for the subject of Modern History by the Department 07 History and Cultural Studies of the JGU Mainz, 2021-2023 Chair of Early Modern History at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.

Research Interests:

Social and cultural history of the early modern town
Symbolic communication in the early modern period
Early Modern External Relations
Cultural difference and social inequality in the early modern period
Hanseatic History
History of slavery
History of Spain and Latin America

Selected Publications:

Theatrum Praecedentiae. Zeremonieller Rang und gesellschaftliche Ordnung in der frühneuzeitlichen Stadt: Leipzig 1500-1800 (Symbolische Kommunikation in der Vormoderne), Darmstadt 2006.
Ungleiche Partner. Die spanische Monarchie und die Hansestädte, ca. 1570-1700 (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte 270), Göttingen 2023 Link
Humanitarianism Before Humanitarianism? Spanish Discourses on Slavery from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, in: Fabian Klose / Mirjam Thulin (Hg.), Humanity. A History of European Concepts in Practice from the Sixteenth Century to the Present, Göttingen 2016 (VIEG, Beiheft 110), S. 151-168.
›He knows them by their dress‹. Dress and Otherness in Early Modern Spain, in: European History Yearbook 20 (2019), S. 52–72.
Fließende Grenzen. Mobilität und Zugehörigkeiten »deutscher« Kaufleute im iberischen Atlantik, in: Sarah Panter / Johannes Paulmann / Thomas Weller (Hg.), Mobilität und Differenzierung. Zur Konstruktion von Unterschieden und Zugehörigkeiten in der europäischen Neuzeit, (VIEG, Beiheft 139), S. 109–142.

Research projects:

After the Conquest: The Ottoman and Spanish Empires in History and Memory

This project compares the Ottoman and Spanish histories of expansion during the early modern period as well as their enduring memories to the present. It brings together scholars of the Eastern Mediterranean, Latin America, and Western Europe to explore the similarities, differences, and connec­tions between these two expanding empires in three workshops focusing on narratives of conquest and loss, post-conquest materiality, and contemporary memory cultures. This project forms part of the Leibniz Research Alliance "Value of the Past", Lab 2.1. "Dynamic Spaces" (2021–2025).

Leibniz Research Alliance "Value of the Past"

The Leibniz Research Alliance "The Value of the Past" started its work on September 1st, 2021. Over a period of four years it will investigate the significance of the past for societies in the past and present.

Lives on the move. Mobile identities and belonging in the Iberian Atlantic, 1492-1700

The project explores the connection between mobility and differentiation from an actor-centred perspective. The focus is on mobile actors of different origins who crossed the spatial and political-legal borders drawn by the Spanish authorities. How did these practices of crossing borders affect the construction of identities and affiliations?