PD Dr. John Carter Wood
Academic Coordinator, Project NFDI4Memory
Room: 03-08, Diether-von-Isenburg-Str. 9-11, 55116 Mainz (Besucheranschrift)Phone: +49 6131 39 39480
Personal Details:
Born in 1970 in La Grange, Illinois, USA. 1988-2001: studied Modern European History with a concentration on Great Britain at Northern Illinois University (BA 1992) and the University of Maryland, College Park (MA 1994, PhD 2001). 1992-1994: MA Fellowship, University of Maryland, College Park. 1994–1997: teaching assistant, University of Maryland, College Park. 2001: visiting lecturer, University of Maryland, College Park. 2005-2011: research fellow in Criminal Justice History at The Open University (Milton Keynes, UK), Department of History and International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research (ICCCR).
John C. Wood has been a researcher (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) at the Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG) in Mainz since 2011, between 2012 and 2017 as primary investigator in the DFG-funded project Christian notions of the social order in Great Britain in reaction to the European Crises of the 1930s and 1940s. After completing this project he began researching Christian perspectives on the technological challenges of modernity and their social consequences between the 1940s and the 1960s. In 2019, John C. Wood took up the post of academic coordinator for the project NFDI4Memory, which is aimed at developing a digital research infrastructure. He has been Managing Director of the NFDI4Memory project since March 2023.
John C. Wood has been a researcher (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) at the Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG) in Mainz since 2011, between 2012 and 2017 as primary investigator in the DFG-funded project Christian notions of the social order in Great Britain in reaction to the European Crises of the 1930s and 1940s. After completing this project he began researching Christian perspectives on the technological challenges of modernity and their social consequences between the 1940s and the 1960s. In 2019, John C. Wood took up the post of academic coordinator for the project NFDI4Memory, which is aimed at developing a digital research infrastructure. He has been Managing Director of the NFDI4Memory project since March 2023.
Research Interests:
The history of crime and justice in modern Europe (e.g., violence, police, trials and their portrayal in the media)
Britain and "Europe" in the twentieth century; British attitudes (whether religious or secular) towards the process of European unification
Culture and media of the inter-war period, especially in Britain.
Selected Publications:
(Hg.) Christian Modernities in Twentieth-Century Britain and Ireland (London: Routledge, 2023)
This is your hour: Christian Intellectuals in Britain and the Crisis of Europe, 1937–1949 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019). Publisher
(Hg.) Christianity and National Identity in Twentieth-Century Europe. Conflict, Community, and the Social Order (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte, Mainz: Beihefte 111), Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2016. OPEN ACCESS and Publisher
The Most Remarkable Woman In England: Poison, Celebrity and the Trials of Beatrice Pace (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012). Review
Violence and Crime in Nineteenth-century England: The Shadow of Our Refinement (London: Routledge, 2004). Publisher
Research projects:
Christian Social Thought in Britain as a Reaction to the European Crises of the 1930s and 1940s
In the DFG-funded project, John Carter Wood investigated the plans for a new social and political order that were developed in the 1930s and 1940s as reactions to economic crises, totalitarianism and war within the framework of an intellectual circle supported mainly by members of the Anglican and Presbyterian churches.
Christianity, Technology, and Society in the Great Britain of the 1940s–1960s
After the Second World War, intensive discussions took place in Europe about the shaping of new, "modern" societies. Christians involved tried to bring social restructuring into harmony with their faith. The principles competing with a Christian worldview were often accompanied by sacralisation tendencies, which were reflected for example in natural science, faith in technology, individualism and the ideologies of the Cold War.
NFDI4Memory
NFDI4Memory is one of several consortia within Germany that will jointly manage the creation of a long-term and sustainable research data infrastructure (Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur, or “NFDI”) for the digital age. It brings together partners united by a common set of interests, needs, and aims related to the distinct challenges faced by those disciplines that use historical methods or that rely on data requiring historical contextualization.
Research Training Group: "The Christian Churches and the Challenge of 'Europe'"
The research training group examined reactions in the process of European unification, as well as the repercussions and activities that the process gave rise to in the area of the churches. The project also focused on the efforts of the churches to insert religious concepts of values into the political processes.