Research

Main research areas:

• African American History
  
• Race and Ethnicity 
  
• Racism
  
• Violence
  
• Transnational History
  
• History of Religion

In addition to individual projects the Curt Engelhorn Chair in American History is involved in collaborative research, including a project sponsored by the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) entitled “African-American History: National and Transnational Vistas.” This project explores the history of slavery, race, abolitionism, black political integration, and civil rights movements from a perspective that encomapsses intersections with social, political, and cultural developments outside the United States. This cooperation seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding not only of the enduring relevance of African-American history at a national level but also to placing questions of ethnicity, race, and racism in a larger global and transnational framework.

This cooperation includes following projects:

• Global Dimensions of Racism in the Modern World (in cooperation with Simon Wendt, Goethe University Frankfurt)
  
• The Civil Rights Struggle, African-American GIs, and Germany (in cooperation with Martin Klimke, GHI Washington)
  
• Toward an International History of Lynching (in cooperation with Simon Wendt, Goethe University Frankfurt und Bernd Greiner, Hamburg Institute for Social Research)

"The Congregation of the Damned: Inside the Raider Nation" is part of a cooperation with the Department of Religious Studies at Heidelberg University funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) which is entitled „Moderne religiöse Erlebnisgesellschaften - Mediale und ästhetische Präsentation von Lehren christlich orientierter Organisationen in den USA.“

The Curt Engelhorn Chair also participates in “You, the People: National location and the writing of American history launched by the “Network of European Historians.” Currently the network is engaged in a collaberative investigation of the various factors academic and cultural conditions that affect the work and writing of American historians based in Europe.