Academic Career
– since 1998 Researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities Essen (KWI)
– 1999-2005 Outside Lecturer for Modern History at the University of Bielefeld
– 2001-2019 Executive Editor of the Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit
– 2004-2005 Visiting Professor at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies
– 2008-2017 Professor for Modern History at the University of Witten/Herdecke
Research Interests
– History of Modern History
– Conceptions of Modernity
– Theory of History and Culture
– History of Historiography
– Human-Animal Studies
Publications (Selection)
Geschichte des Historismus. Eine Einführung, München (C.H. Beck) 1992 (with Jörn Rüsen).
Bürgerliche Modernisierungskrise und historische Sinnbildung. Kulturgeschichte bei Droysen, Burckhardt und Max Weber, Göttingen (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) 1994 (Dissertation).
Amerikanischer Liberalismus und zivile Gesellschaft. Perspektiven sozialer Reform zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts, Göttingen (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) 2001 (Habilitation).
Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit, 16 Bde., Stuttgart (Metzler) 2004-2012 (as Executive Editor).
Handbuch der Moderneforschung, Stuttgart (Metzler) 2015 (as editor with Wolfgang Knöbl and Ute Schneider).