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[1]Research Project
"Men, Motorcycles and Modernity; A
Social History of Motorization during the Weimar
Republic"
Motorization tangibly altered
German society – changing city and landscapes, patterns of
circulation of people, goods and capital. Men, Motorcycles and
Modernity; Motorization during the Weimar Republic, argues that the
socially dynamic and historically specific process of motorization in
Weimar Germany, during which there was a numerical superiority of
motorcycles in relation to cars, offers a multi-layered basis for
exploring the everyday construction of social categories such as
urban, rural, class, gender, generation, production, consumption and
leisure. This dissertation, drawing upon methodologies of the
everyday, historical anthropology and social histories of technology,
challenges standard historiographical interpretations of gender and
consumption during the Weimar Republic. Based on an analysis of
economic, institutional, juridical and discursive sources, modern man
is revealed as an active participant in an emergent consumer society,
his masculinity defined not only by what he produced, but also by what
and how he consumed.
Also central to my project is an
analysis of how motorization concretely transformed both urban and
rural landscapes, as well as how the spatialized place relationship
between city and countryside changed discursively. While on the one
hand motorization contributed to homogenizing the imagination and
metaphorically shrinking the space of the national landscape, on the
other hand, the motor vehicle provided its users the opportunity to
explore spaces and personal liberation, free from place-bound
constraints. Motorization also produced everyday conflicts over the
right to define how public space was used and over risk and safety.
Although personal motorized transportation held the promise of greater
freedom, new forms of control and governance were being developed to
monitor and regulate the motorized population. As Weimar society was
in the characteristically ambivalent throes of modernity, social and
spatial heterogeneity persisted despite the homogenizing tendencies of
the process of motorization.
During my TGK fellowship, I
will revise my original dissertation project for publication for a
wider audience. In addition, I will expand the scope by analyzing
transformations produced in the context of a modernizing and
motorizing society from an urban and transnational perspective, in
terms of culture and economy, governance and infrastructure.
Lebenslauf / Curriculum Vitae
| Akademische
Berufserfahrung
| |
| Dozentin an der New York University Berlin:
„Comparative Modern Societies: Politics and Society in 20th Century
Germany“ | Januar-Mai
2014 |
| Freischaffende
Wissenschaftlerin für die Auto-Uni, Institut für Arbeits- und
Personalmanagement (IFAP), Wolfsburg Projekte:
Literaturstudie zur „Wandlung im Unternehmensformen – Von
der T-Form zu der M-Form“ Unterstützungsarbeit an dem
Projekt „Über Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft des
Fließbandes in der Automobilproduktion” (Unter die Leitung von
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Jürgens und Prof. Dr. Horst
Neumann) |
seit Dezember 2013 |
| Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin von Professor Bruce Kogut
(Columbia University Business School) an seinem Projekt zu
betrieblichen Organisationstechnologien und Netzwerken in der
Wirtschaft in Deutschland 1890-1940.
| November 2012 –
Juli 2013 |
| Gastprofessur
“Gender und Stadt”, TU Berlin, Fak. VI, „Planen Bauen Umwelt“:
Institut für Soziologie und Fak. I „Geisteswissenschaften“:
Fachbereich Historische Urbanistik im Rahmen des Berliner Programms
zur Förderung der Chancengleichheit
| Juli 2010- August
2011 |
| Post-Doc, Transatlantisches
Graduiertenkolleg, Berlin - New York, Center for Metropolitan Studies,
“History and Culture of the Metropolis during the Twentieth
Century” | Mai
2008- April 2010 |
|
Studium |
| |
| Ph.D. in Modern European History, New York
University Dissertation: Men,
Motorcycles and Modernity; Motorization in the Weimar Republic
Erstbetreuerin: Prof. Mary Nolan
(NYU); Zweitbetreuerin: Prof. Atina Grossmann
(Cooper Union); Drittbetreuerin: Prof. Manu Goswami (NYU);
LeserInnen: Prof. Linda Gordon (NYU); Prof. Anson Rabinbach
(Princeton) | Mai
2008 | |
| BA, Program in
History, Program in German Studies, University of California, Santa
Cruz Highest
Honors in the Degree of History, Honors in the Degree of German
Studies | März
1997 | |
Publikationen, Vorträge etc. / Publications, Lectures etc.
PUBLICATIONS
Thick Space: Interdisciplinary Approaches to
Metropolitanism, with D. Brantz and G. Wagner-Kyora (eds.),
Berghahn Books, Oxford/New York, forthcoming.
Review of
Umbach, M., German Cities and Bourgeois Modernism, 1890-1924. Oxford
University Press, 2009, in European History Quarterly, forthcoming.
“The Image of the ‘Tourist Trophy’ and British
Motorcycling in the Weimar Republic”, in The International Journal
of Motorcycling Studies, Special 100-year-TT-Issue, November 2007.
ijms.nova.edu/November2007TT/IJMS_Artcl.Disko.html [3]
Nachwort zum Nachdruck – Abel – Zeitschrift für Sklaverei,
Verlag Thomas Franz, Frankfurt am Main, 2001
“Stehend
reiten auf zwei Gäulen. Der Schriftsteller und Anarchist Erich
Mühsam,” in Essays. Schwabing. Kunst und Leben um 1900, Munich
and Tucson, 1998
RECENT EMPLOYMENT
Adjunct
Instructor, “Modern European Social and Political History in Global
Context,” The Cooper Union, New York City, Fall Semester 2007
Instructor Summer Session II, “Western Civilization II; The
Rise of Modern Europe”, Department of History, New York University,
June 2005- August 2005
Research and Teaching Assistant, New
York University, Department of History, 2001-2008.
Freelance Editorial Assistant/Translator, June 1999-present
Assistant Curator “Schwabing. Kunst und Leben um 1900”,
Münchner Stadtmuseum, Munich, Germany, June 1997-June 1998
PRESENTATIONS
“Joyriding and Drunk Driving; Risk and
the Regulation of Motorization During the Weimar Republic,”
Prospective Students’ Weekend, History Department, New York
University, February 2008.
“The Image of the ‘Tourist
Trophy’ and British Motorcycling in the Weimar Republic”, Upcoming
Conference: “The Isle of Man TT Races: Heritage, Place and Spirit”
held at Villa Marina, Isle of Man, May 28th - 30th, 2007.
“Sex in the Sidecar; Motorization, Gender and Sexuality in the
Weimar Republic,” History of Women and Gender Seminar, New York
University, December 4, 2006.
“Noise and Nerves in the
“Roaring” Twenties; Class, Gender and Generational Conflicts
between Motorcyclists and other Road-Users During the Weimar
Republic;” Tamiment Seminar in the History of the Labor and the
Working Class, New York University, April 11, 2006.
“Promoting Motoring, From Pioneers to Global Dominance: The
Motorcycle Industry 1885-1933,” Modern European Colloquium, New York
University, April 26, 2005.
“Männer und Motorräder,
Eine sozio-kulturelle Untersuchung des Habitus der Motorradfahrer
während der Weimarer Republik,” Forschungskolloquium des Instituts
für Philosophie, Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschafts- und
Technikgeschichte, Technische Universität, Berlin, July 12, 2004.
“A Dog’s Day; Violence and Ethics in the Motorcycling
Community during the Weimar Republic”, Berlin Program for Advanced
German and European Studies Colloquium, Freie Universität, Berlin,
June 16, 2004.
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