Prof Jessica Reinisch — Birkbeck, University of London

Overview

Administrative responsibilities

Director of MA Programmes

Research

Research overview

Jessica Reinisch’s main interests lie in the history of modern Europe, the world wars and post-war reconstruction, internationalism, international organisations and networks, humanitarianism, science and expertise, and refugees, migration and displacement.

She is currently a co-investigator of the HERA-funded project, The Scientific Conference: A Social, Cultural and Political History

She is also working on a history of the work and impact of a short-lived but highly influential international body, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), whose activities in Europe dominated in the stretches of war-torn Europe that became the frontline of the emerging Cold War.

She is Director of the Centre for the Study of Internationalism at Birkbeck.

She has been a co-organiser of the Beyond Camps and Forced Labour conferences since 2007. The sixth conference took place at Birkbeck in January 2018, the seventh is planned for 2021.

2013-2019 she was co-editor of the journal Contemporary European History, which covers the history of Eastern and Western Europe, including Britain, from 1918 to the present.

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Supervisions within Birkbeck:: 2

Current doctoral researchers

JANE MUMBY

Nature of supervision:
Principal Supervisor, Oct 2018 onwards
NICOLE ALBRECHT

Nature of supervision:
Principal Supervisor, Oct 2020 onwards

Teaching

Teaching modules

Rise of the Modern State (POSO031S5)
The Reconstruction of Europe, 1945-1950 (level 5) (SSHC468S5)
Fields of War and Humanitarianism (SSPO141S7)

Publications

Article

Reinisch, Jessica (2019) Contemporary European historians on Brexit. Contemporary European History 28 (1), ISSN 0960-7773. (In Press)
Reinisch, Jessica (2016) Agents of internationalism. Contemporary European History 25 (2), pp. 195-205. ISSN 0960-7773.
Reinisch, Jessica (2015) ‘Forever Temporary’: migrants in Calais, then and now. The Political Quarterly 86 (4), pp. 515-522. ISSN 0032-3179.
Frank, M. and Reinisch, Jessica (2014) Refugees and the nation-state in Europe, 1919-59. Journal of Contemporary History 49 (3), pp. 477-490. ISSN 0022-0094.
Reinisch, Jessica (2013) "Auntie UNRRA" at the crossroads. Past & Present 218 (S8), pp. 70-97. ISSN 0031-2746.
Reinisch, Jessica (2011) Internationalism in relief: the Birth (and death) of UNRRA. Past & Present 210 (S6), pp. 258-289. ISSN 0031-2746.
Reinisch, Jessica (2008) Introduction: relief in the aftermath of war. Journal of Contemporary History 43 (3), pp. 371-404. ISSN 0022-0094.
Reinisch, Jessica (2008) 'We shall rebuild anew a powerful nation': UNRRA, internationalism and national reconstruction in Poland. Journal of Contemporary History 43 (3), pp. 451-476. ISSN 0022-0094.
Reinisch, Jessica (2007) A new beginning? German medical and political traditions in the aftermath of the Second World War. Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy 45 (3), pp. 241-257. ISSN 0026-4695.

Book

Frank, M. and Reinisch, Jessica, eds. (2017) Refugees in Europe, 1919-1959: a forty years’ crisis?. London, UK: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781472585639.
Reinisch, Jessica (2013) The perils of peace: the public health crisis in occupied Germany. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199660797.
Reinisch, Jessica and White, E. (2011) The disentanglement of populations: migration, expulsion and displacement in postwar Europe, 1944-1949. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230222045.
Bardgett, S. and Cesarani, D. and Reinisch, Jessica and Steinert, J.-D., eds. (2011) Justice, politics and memory in Europe after the Second World War. Landscapes after Battle. 2, Edgeware, Middlesex, UK: Valentine Mitchell. ISBN 9780853039426.
Mazower, M. and Reinisch, Jessica and Feldman, David, eds. (2011) Post-War Reconstruction in Europe: International Perspectives, 1945-1949. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199692743.
Bardgett, S. and Cesarani, D. and Reinisch, Jessica and Steinert, J.-D., eds. (2010) Survivors of Nazi persecution in Europe after the Second World War. Landscapes after Battle. 1, Edgeware, Middlesex, UK: Valentine Mitchell. ISBN 9780853039020.

Book Section

Mangion, Carmen M. (2021) Local and global: women religious, Catholic internationalism and social justice. In: Reinisch, Jessica and Brydan, D. (eds.) Europe’s Internationalists: Rethinking the Short Twentieth Century. Histories of Internationalism. London, UK: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781350107359.
Reinisch, Jessica (2018) What makes an expert? The view from UNRRA, 1943–47. In: Trentmann, Frank and Sum, A.B. and Riviera, M. (eds.) Work in Progress. Economy and Environment in the Hands of Experts. Munich, Germany: Oekom. pp. 103-130. ISBN 9783962380106.
Reinisch, Jessica (2017) Old wine in new bottles? UNRRA and the mid-century world of refugees. In: Reinisch, Jessica and Frank, M. (eds.) Refugees in Europe, 1919-1959: A Forty Years' Crisis?. London, UK: Bloomsbury. pp. 147-175. ISBN 9781472585639.
Reinisch, Jessica (2011) German refugees and labour in the Soviet zone of Germany, 1945-1949. In: Reinisch, Jessica and White, E. (eds.) The Disentanglement of Populations: Migration, Expulsion and Displacement in Postwar Europe, 1944-1949. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 185-209. ISBN 9780230222045.
Reinisch, Jessica (2011) Introduction. In: Reinisch, Jessica and White, E. (eds.) The Disentanglement of Populations: Migration, Expulsion and Displacement in postwar Europe 1943-1949. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. xiv-xxviii. ISBN 9780230222045.
Reinisch, Jessica (2011) Refugees and labour in the Soviet zone of Germany. In: Reinisch, Jessica and White, E. (eds.) The Disentanglement of Populations: Migration, Expulsion and Displacement in postwar Europe 1943-1949. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 185-209. ISBN 9780230222045.
Reinisch, Jessica (2011) Survivors and survival in Europe after the Second World War. In: Bardgett, S. and Cesarani, D. and Reinisch, Jessica and Steinert, J.-D. (eds.) Justice, Politics and Memory in Europe after the Second World War. Landscapes after Battle. Edgeware, Middlesex, UK: Vallentine Mitchell. pp. 1-18. ISBN 9780853039426.
Reinisch, Jessica (2008) Le nazione hanno bisogno di cittadini sani e coraggiosi': le displaced persons, l'unrra e la sanità pubblica. In: Crainz, G. and Pupo, R. and Salvatici, S. (eds.) Naufraghi della pace: Il 1945, i profughi e le memorie divise d'Europa. Rome, Italy: Donzelli. ISBN 9788860362711.
Reinisch, Jessica (2007) Man kommt zwangsläufig in die Rolle des Pg.-Schützers...': Entnazifizierung und Gesundheitspolitik in der Sowjetischen Besatzungszone. In: Barker, P. and Ohse, M.-D. and Tage, D. (eds.) Views from Abroad: die DDR aus britischer Perspektive. Bertelsmann Verlag. pp. 79-91. ISBN 9783763935697.
Reinisch, Jessica (2007) Zurück zu unserem virchow! medizinische karrieren, nationalhelden und geschichtsschreibung in Deutschland nach 1945. In: Huntelman, A.C. and Vossen, J. and Czech, H. (eds.) Gesundheit und Staat: Studien zur Geschichte der Gesundheitsämter in Deutschland, 1870-1950. Matthiesen Verlag. pp. 255-274. ISBN 9783786841043.

Conference Item

Reinisch, Jessica Steinert, J.D. and Weber, I., eds. (2008) Displaced persons and public health in Germany after 1945. Beyond camps and forced labour : current international research on survivors of Nazi persecution, 2008, London, UK