Senior Lecturer in history, Programme Director of the master programme Early Modern Studies, Research Director of the node Early Modern Cultural History. Liaison Officer for the Matariki Humanities Network. Researching on political and social culture during the age of revolutions. Presently working on the project "Making a Difference: Sartorial Practices and Social Order in Early Modern Europe".
In his research, Mikael Alm has focused on questions of power, hierarchies, and the ways in which social and political relationships are expressed, shaped and legitimised. The main focal point has been on the political and social culture of late 18th and early 19th century. He is currently working with a project on sartorial practices for social differentiation in eighteenth century Sweden. Throughout his work runs an interest in empirical sources, schools of theory and methodologial solutions. The theoretical interest has primarily been focused on the field of cultural history and analytical concepts such as culture, languages and discourse. Methodologically, Alm has, alongside traditionally historical text-sources, worked extensively with non-written sources (such as medals, monuments, dress, ceremonies et cetera) through iconographic, ritual and spatial analysis.

During his time at the University of Oldenburg, Dr. Alm co-organised a workshop on Early Modern History for junior scholars from the Universities of Uppsala and Oldenburg.

2011 - present: Assistant Professor at the DHS, University of Verona

2008 - 2011: Appointed Professor of History of medieval philosophy at the University of Verona

2007 - 2010: Three-year post-doctoral scholarship at the University of Verona (Project Title: Metaphysics and Violence)

2000 - 2004: Ph.D. in Philosophy, University of Venice (Thesis Title: Alano di Lilla. Dalla metafisica alla prassi)

1995: Degree in Philosophy, University of Venice (Thesis Title: 'Al confine tra patria e via'. Simbolo e teofania in San Bonaventura)

Carlo Chiurco visited the Carl von Ossietzky-University as a guest researcher in connection with the FLiF (Forschungsbasiertes Lernen im Fokus)-program for the internationalisation of research-oriented teaching.

Workshop "Owning: A most Human Passion": Owning has always been looked at with great suspicion by philosophy and religion alike, tolerated as a necessary concession to be made to human finite-ness rather than a constitutive feature of the humana natura. Objects in turn were seen as the very opposite of the human. Plato was the first to criticize the seemingly intrinsical greed embedded within the phenomenon of possessing objects. His critique resonated through centuries until the modern age, but with and after the Renaissance the rise of merchant bourgeoisie and the spreading of the phenomenon of collecting showed that the issue of owning could not be addressed only in terms of suspicion towards the sacra auri fames, as it was in Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham. In time, and especially with the explosion of mass consumerism in the second half of the 20th century, owning started to pose another sort of danger, that of de-humanization (man becomes an object, a thing), as in Heidegger. But are objects condemned to perpetual inhumanity, and is such pseudo-humanistic paradigm really impossible to overcome? The workshop will address these issues:

a) The ethical issue: are ethical condemnations of, or suspicions about, owning fully or partially justifiable?

b) The ontological issue: is the ontological issue sensible?, i.e. does owning actually affect in a negative way the humanity of the human? What about the relation between owning objects and the satisfaction of human desire?

c) The historical issue: Owning as one of the engines of history and its power of pushing change through the power of desire.

Benjamin Marschke (PhD UCLA) is a Professor of History at Humboldt State University (Link einfügen: history.humboldt.edu/people), in Arcata, California. Dr. Marschke has held fellowships from the DAAD, the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, and the Max Planck Institut für Geschichte. Marschke is the author of Absolutely Pietist: Patronage, Factionalism, and State-Building in the Early Eighteenth-Century Prussian Army Chaplaincy (2005), a co-editor of The Holy Roman Empire, Reconsidered (2010), a co-author of Experiencing the Thirty Years War, with Hans Medick (2013), a co-editor of Kinship, Community, and Self:  Essays in Honor of David Warren Sabean (2015), and a co-editor of Francke und seine Könige (forthcoming 2016), and Pietismus und Ökonomie (forthcoming 2016). Marschke's research focus has been Halle Pietists at the Prussian court and the relationship of Halle Pietism and the Prussian monarchy in the eighteenth century.  In addition to the aforementioned edited volumes, he is currently working on changes in political ceremony, gender/sexuality, luxury/money, and intellectual/academic culture in the early eighteenth century, focusing on King Frederick William I of Prussia (1713-1740).

Benjamin Marschke gab im Sommersemester 2014 im Rahmen des FLiF (Forschungsbasiertes Lernen im Fokus)-Programms ein Blockseminar, in dessen Verlauf eine Online-Ausstellung zum Thema Visitationsakte vorbereitet wurde. Außerdem war er als Gastreferent in anderen frühneuzeitlichen Seminaren tätig.

2014 - heute: Acting Head of Postgraduate Studies, Victoria and Albert Museum / Royal College of Art Postgraduate Programmes in History of Design and Material Culture

2013 - heute: Head of Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, Victoria and Albert Museum / Royal College of Art Postgraduate Programmes in History of Design and Material Culture

2006 - 2013: Tutor in Graduate Studies (post 1600), Victoria and Albert Museum / Royal College of Art Postgraduate Programmes in History of Design and Material Culture

2005: PhD History, University of Warwick (Thesis Title: 'Rime and Reason': The Political World of the Broadside Ballad, 1640-1689)

2000: Post-Graduate Certificate of Counselling, University of Warwick

1982: Post-Graduate Certificate of Education, University of Leicester

1980: B.A. Hons History, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth

Angela McShane war im Zuge des FLiF (Forschungsbasiertes Lernen im Fokus)-Programms zur Internationalisierung forschungsorientierter Lehre im November 2016 als Gastwissenschaftlerin an der Universität Oldenburg.

Im Rahmen der Seminare "Was darf man mit Geschichte machen? Inszenierte Geschichte in Wissenschaft, Ausstellung, Theater und Konsum" von Dr. Jessica Cronshagen, "Zwischen Oldenburg und St. Croix. Herrschaftspraxis und regionale Kommunikationsräume der dänisch-oldenburgischen Personalunion – Ausstellungsprojekt" von Prof. Dr. Dagmar Freist sowie "Ausstellungsprojekt Herrschaft als Kommunikationsraum – die Grafschaft Oldenburg in Personalunion mit Dänemark 1667-1774" von Dr. Ruth Schilling wurde Dr. Angela McShane zu einem zweitägigen Workshop eingeladen:

Exkursion zum Schifffahrtsmuseum Bremerhaven (24. 11. 2016, 15-19 Uhr)

Workshop "Ausstellungskonzeption und Ausstellungsethik" in der Villa GeistReich (25. 11. 2016, 09-14 Uhr)