Neuere Geschichte

Dr. Esther Baakman

I am a historian of early modern colonial history and the history of news My research deals with the intersection of both fields focusing on colonial news in the periodical press, colonial citizenship, and the development of various discourses of slavery in early modern Europe. My current book project, based on my dissertation and provisionally entitled Atlantic Adivces: Representing the Americas in the Dutch Periodical Press, explores how the periodical press consistently covered distant but urgent transatlantic conflicts and developments using the constant flow of communications in the Atlantic world. It reveals how the weekly periodicity of the press brought stories of colonialism and slavery into the lives of European citizens. Alongside my research, I have been teaching in early modern and modern history at Leiden University, and Radboud University Nijmegen.


Dr. Austin Collins

I am a historian of early modern European history, with a specialisation in urban, religious, and spatial approaches. My research investigates how monarchical and religious influence interacted with civic authority within urban spaces during the early French Wars of Religion. My current book project, based on my doctoral dissertation and provisionally entitled ‘‘La ville eut l’éphémère honneur d’être comme la capitale du Royaume': A Spatial History of Charles IX’s Royal Tour of France, 1564–1566 (Angoulême, Lyon, Sens)’, explores how royal, civic, and religious actors utilized different urban spaces in France to project their own authority and promote religious toleration and co-existence through royal entrances amid religious warfare. My research incorporates primary source material such as festival books, financial records, correspondences, city council minutes, and maps. Prior to Tübingen, I have taught early modern European seminars at Durham University.