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Prof Jan Rueger

  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    Jan Rueger joined Birkbeck in 2003 after holding a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale. He was head of department from 2017 to 2020.

  • Research

    Research

    Research overview

    My research focuses on modern Britain and Germany in Europe and the world. Heligoland: Britain, Germany and the Struggle for the North Sea, my most recent book, is a microhistory of the Anglo-German relationship as it unfolded from the Napoleonic Wars to the Cold War. It takes a small island in the North Sea as a prism through which to view rivalry, conflict and reconciliation between the two nations. The project has made me engage more with the intersections of national, imperial, European and world histories, on which I reflect in a number of recent and forthcoming publications.

    Research clusters and groups

    • Global history and internationalism
    • Conflict and violence
    • Mobility and migration
    • Difference, race and inequality
  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Supervision

    Current and completed PhD theses:
    - Learned societies and the ancient national past in Britain, France and Germany, 1830-1890
    - The evolution of British official attitudes towards civil war, 1900-1925
    - Heroism and exploration in Victorian Britain
    - Elections and political culture in Mecklenburg, 1848-1918
    - Stereoscopic viewing and visual culture in Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic
    - Royal yachts, maritime tours and constructions of monarchy, empire and decolonization, c. 1875-1997

    Current doctoral researchers

    • ELLIS HUDDART
    • JOHN SIBLON
    • PAUL O'DONNELL

    Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

    • JACK WATLING
  • Publications

    Publications

    Article

    Book

    Book Section