Dr Mirjam Hähnle
Mirjam Hähnle joined the GHIL in April 2022. She is interested in early modern concepts of human-environment relations and debates about writing history in times of climate crisis. After studying History and German Studies in Freiburg (Germany), she went to Basel (Switzerland) for her PhD. Her first book deals with changing temporalities in the 18th century, especially in the context of Europeans travelling to the Near East. In her new project, Mirjam explores urban nature in literary and built utopian cities from 1600 to 1750, focussing on the planning, everyday interspecies life, and resource infrastructures of Freudenstadt and Philadelphia.
Research Project
Life in the Grid
Urban Nature in City Utopias, c. 1600-1750
How should human and non-human beings live together? How should lands and resources be distributed in a model society? In the 16th and 17th centuries, the place through which utopian answers to such questions were developed and tested was often the city. This project explores urban nature in literary and built ideal cities, focusing on utopian conceptualisations as well as everyday human-environment relations. The goal of the study is to show that urban utopias formed a contradictory missing piece in understandings of the relationships between people and their non-human environments in the early modern period. City utopias can be used to trace both the colonial appropriation of people and nature, which was decisively shaped in this era, and the creation of counter-worlds and practices.
Responsibilities at the GHIL
- Research Fellow in Early Modern History
- Fellowship Programme
Research Interests
- Early modern resource imaginaries
- Utopian thinking
- Environmental history of the city
- Historical concepts of time
- History writing and the climate crisis
Education and Academic Background
| 2022– | Research Fellow at the GHIL |
| 2019-2022 | Lecturer at the chair of Prof. Dr. Claudia Opitz-Belakhal, University of Basel (Switzerland) |
| 2016-2019 | Research Fellow in the Swiss National Science Foundation Project “Exploring the Orient and finding oneself. Knowledge and research in the context of the German-Danish Arab Expedition (1761-1767)” [transl.], University of Basel |
| 2014-2019 | Ph.D in History, University of Basel |
| 2008-2014 | Studies at the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany); Double major in History and German |
Fellowships, Grants, and Scholarships
| 2023 | Funding of an Open Access publication by Swiss National Science Foundation |
| 2022 | Research Grant by Vögelin-Bienz-Stiftung, Staatsarchiv Basel |
| 2022 | Travel Grant by Schweizerische Akademie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften |
| 2021 | Grant for a Fellowship at the Center for Urban History Antwerpen (declined) by Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft, Basel |
| 2021 | Funding of an Open Access publication by Swiss National Science Foundation |
| 2021 | Funding international conference “Objektzeiten”, University of Basel (with Julian Zimmermann); by Basel Graduate School of History, Young Talent Fund of the University of Basel, Foundation “Humanism Today”, University of Freiburg |
| 2014-2016 | Starting scholarship for doctoral studies at the Basel Graduate School of History, University of Basel |
| 2014 | Shortcuts Fellowship at the Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology for doctoral studies, University of Bielefeld |
| 2012-2014 | Deutschlandstipendium (State scholarship program for talented and high-achieving students), University of Freiburg |
Honours and Distinctions
| 2023 | Nomination for the Teaching Excellence Awards 2023 of the University of Basel in the categories Modern Scholarship, Future Talents, Starke Fundamente |
| 2021 | Nomination for the Teaching Excellence Awards 2021 of the University of Basel in the categories “Future Talents” and “Service to Teaching” |
Memberships and Affiliations
- Renaissance Society of America
- European Society for Environmental History
- Global Urban History Project
- Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Geschichte (SGG)
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania
- Gesellschaft für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, der Medizin und der Technik
Publications
Monographs and Edited Volumes
with Anna Leyrer; Maximiliane Berger (eds.), Männer über sich. Wissenschaft, Biografie, Geschlecht (Göttingen, 2024) (Read here)
with Julian Zimmermann (eds.), Objektzeiten. Die Relationierung historischer Zeiten durch Relikte (6.–20. Jahrhundert) (Baden-Baden, 2023)
Wann war Arabien? Historische Zeiterfahrungen im Kontext einer Forschungsreise (1761-1767) (Köln, 2021) (Read here)
Articles and Chapters
with Lisa Cronjäger, ‘Der Hardwald. Ein politischer Aushandlungsraum zwischen Stadt und Land, Waldweide und Chemieindustrie’, in Baur, Esther; Gafner, Lina, Städtischer Raum: offen und begrenzt, gestaltet und umkämpft (Stadt.Geschichte.Basel vol. 9) [forthcoming].
with Maximiliane Berger, Anna Leyrer, ‘Einleitung: Schreibende Männer, schreibende Frauen’, in Maximiliane Berger, Mirjam Hähnle, Anna Leyrer (eds.), Männer über sich. Wissenschaft, Biografie, Geschlecht (Göttingen, 2024) (Read here)
with Sarah Schober, Isabelle Schürch, ‘Nachhaltigkeit im Buch. Ein Gespräch mit Milo Probst und Annette Kehnel’, Traverse, 2 (2023), 154–64.
‘Unzählige Dinge vor Augen. Antiquarische Evidenzerzeugung in Reiseberichten des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts’, in Antje Flüchter et al. (eds.), Plausibilisierungsdynamiken und Evidenzpraktiken von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, (Bielefeld, 2023), 263–90 (Read here).
with Julian Zimmermann, ‘Einleitung: Ruinenmomente. Die Relationierung historischer Zeiten durch Relikte’, in Mirjam Hähnle, Julian Zimmermann (eds.), Objektzeiten: die Relationierung historischer Zeiten durch Relikte (6.–20. Jahrhundert) (Baden-Baden, 2023), 7–20.
Carolyn Merchants „Death of Nature“ und die sozio-ökologischen Utopien der Frühen Neuzeit: eine Relektüre in Zeiten der Klimakrise, L’Homme. Europäische Zeitschrift für Feministische Geschichtswissenschaft, 34 (2023), 33–48 [peer reviewed].
‘Reisetexte, europäische’, in Markus Krajewski et al. (eds.), Enzyklopädie der Genauigkeit (Constance, 2021), 418–30.
‘Das Ruinenfeld als „Merkwürdigkeit“ und „Kontaktzone“. Die Ägyptenberichte der dänischen Arabien-Expedition (1761–1767)’, in Joachim Eibach; Claudia Opitz-Belakhal (eds.), Zwischen Kulturen. Mittler und Grenzgänger vom 17. bis 19. Jahrhundert (Hannover, 2018), 93–118.
‘The Perception of Time and Space in the Travelogues of the Royal Danish Expedition to Arabia, in Anne Haslund Hansen (ed.), Arrivals: The Life of the Royal Danish Expedition to Arabia 1767-2017 (Copenhagen, 2017), 57–68.
‘Den danske ekspedition til Arabien. Tid og rum i dens rejsebeskrivelser’, in Anne Haslund Hansen (ed.), Hjembragt. 1767-2017. 250 år efter Carsten Niebuhrs Arabiske Rejse (Copenhagen 2017), 57–68.
‘Knowledge About the “Orient” Between Voice and Scripture. Michel De Certeau and the Royal Danish Expedition to Arabia Felix (1761–1767)’, InterDisciplines. Journal of History and Sociology, 8 (2017), 41–68. (Read here)
Reviews and Miscellaneous Publications
Reviews
A. Kranen, Historische Topographien: Bilder europäischer Reisender im Osmanischen Reich um 1700, Burlington Magazine, 163 (2021), 971–72.
Blog posts
‘A village within a city. Der Londoner Wohnkomplex Barbican und die Wohnutopien des 20. Jahrhunderts’, Blog #MWSLieblingsorte der Max Weber Stiftung, 7 December 2022 [Read here]
Conference review of Theory and Empiricism. Approaches to History Between Description and Abstraction, University of Basel (8–9 Oct. 2015), H-Soz-u-Kult, 14 January 2016 [Read here]