Description:
A thematic introduction to business history, tracing the firm from the preindustrial era through industrialisation, the rise of big business, and into globalisation and decolonisation. Combines key historiographical texts with student presentations on focused case-study questions.

Learning objectives:

• Core debates and approaches in business history
• Situating firms and industries in broader economic, political, and social contexts across the 19th and 20th centuries
• Comparative and transnational perspectives on business
• Independent research, oral presentation, and academic writing

Topics include:

• From the preindustrial firm to the First Industrial Revolution
• Big business before 1914; Americanisation in the interwar period
• Business and National Socialism
• Rise of multinational enterprises
• Decolonising business and business in emerging markets
• Globalisation

Assessment:
Oral presentation with discussion moderation · Written research paper

Description:
This nine-session course traces the transformative history of aviation in Europe from the early 20th century to the present — examining how aviation has compressed distances, shaped political ideologies, and influenced major geopolitical events. Students combine oral history, archival research, and digital storytelling.

Learning objectives:

• Key historical developments in European aviation and their socio-political contexts
• Aviation’s impact on global mobility, regional development, and environmental sustainability
• Translating research findings into digital formats for a public audience

Portfolio assignment:

• Flight story interview
• Historical context research and contemporary comparison
• Creative digital presentation combining all elements

Assessment:
Portfolio assignment · Regular seminar participation

Description:
An interdisciplinary block seminar examining the historical roots of African development through two lenses: natural experiments and critical comparative history. Students learn to pair quantitative empirical scholarship with qualitative historical case studies and to evaluate policy proposals against a richer historical record.

Co-taught with Björn Vollan (Chair for Natural Resources / Behavioural Economics, Philipps-Universität Marburg).

Learning objectives:

• Major debates on the long-run determinants of African development
• Reading and assessing empirical work using natural experiments
• Combining quantitative and qualitative scholarship across economics, history, and social sciences
• Critical evaluation of policy proposals

Topics:

• Pre-colonial: effects of the slave trade
• Colonial origins of development: settler mortality, infrastructure, colonial budgeting
• Roots of conflict: climate, artificial borders, extractive concessions

Assessment:
Oral presentation and discussion moderation · Written term paper

Description:
This seminar introduces the history of Pan-Africanism as a political and cultural concept, focusing on classical texts by key figures and tracing the development, networks, and influence of the Pan-African idea from its origins to the present. Methodologically, it critically examines approaches from intellectual history, conceptual history, cultural history, and biography.

Learning objectives:

• Pan-Africanism as a political and cultural concept
• Development, networks, and influence of the Pan-African idea
• Critical reflection on historiographical approaches: intellectual history, conceptual history, cultural history, biography
• Independent research project in iterative steps: bibliography, exposé, outline, research paper

Topics include:

• Blyden, Du Bois, Garvey, Nkrumah, Cheikh Anta Diop
• Women and Pan-Africanism
• Pan-Africanism and popular culture: Bob Marley, Afrofuturism, Black Panther
• Pan-Africanism today: the African Union

Assessment:
Written research paper · Oral contribution or discussion facilitation

Description:
An introduction to digital sources in historical research, with a focus on African and global history. Combines conceptual discussion with hands-on exercises in online archives, databases, and digital tools. Students develop an independent research project in iterative steps.

Learning objectives:

• Critical understanding of sources and archives in the digital age
• Overview of existing projects, databases, and software for African and global history
• Hands-on skills: researching online archives, organising digital material, presenting results

Topics include:

• International organisations, national archives, press archives, museums, grassroots archives
• Social media as archives
• Scanning, storing, and analysing digital sources
• Legal aspects of digital research; career perspectives

Assessment:
Written research paper · Short oral contribution