Institute of Modern History

Johannes Gradel

Research Assistant

Contact

Department of History
Institute of Modern History
Wilhelmstraße 36
72074 Tübingen
+49 (0) 7071 29-78505
Johannes.Gradel@uni-tuebingen.de

Office hours

After taking contact via email.

Office: Hegelbau, 2nd floor, room 204, or via zoom.

Vita

since 05/2024
Research Assistant

in the DFG-funded project “Actors, Spaces, Translations: A History of Interactions and Relationships in the Capuchin Mission in the Kingdom of Kongo (c. 1645-1715)”

since 01/2023
Research Assistant

in the DFG Priority Programme 2130 “Cultures of Translation in Early Modern Times”

since 12/2022
Doctoral Student

Global History of the Early Modern Period, Department of Modern History, Tübingen University, supervised by Jun. Prof. Dr. Christina Brauner

05/2021-07/2022
Tutor

in Medieval History, Tübingen University

10/2019-07/2022
Master’s programme of History and Latin Philology

at Tübingen University and the Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza

04/2018-12/2020
Mentor

in Latin Philology, Tübingen University

04/2017-12/2022
Student Assistant

in the Emmy Noether research project “Power and Influence: Influencing Emperors between Antiquity and the Middle Ages”, Tübingen University

10/2015-09/2019
Bachelor’s programme of History and Latin Philology

at Tübingen University

Research

 

PhD project

Actors, Spaces, Translations: A History of Interactions and Relationships in the Capuchin Mission in the Kingdom of Kongo (c. 1645-1715)

Priorities

  • History of West Central Africa
  • Early Modern Mission History
  • 18th century cartography

Talks

  • Agency and Representation of Enslaved Women in the Capuchin Hospice of Kimbangu, Kingdom of Kongo (1701), 12. Cambridge-Tübingen Workshop, Cambridge, 16 September 2025
  • „Salz essen“. Die Taufe als Teil einer Beziehungsgeschichte der Kapuzinermission im Königreich Kongo (17./18. Jh.), Talk in the colloquium of Early Modern History, LMU Munich, 27 October 2025
  • „Ist eine Sklavenhändlerin besser als ein Rassist?“: Königin Njinga und die Debatte um Straßennamen im Berliner Afrikanischen Viertel, Conference „Geschichtsdidaktische Herausforderungen im Umgang mit dem deutschen Kolonialismus. Perspektiven und Ansätze für das historische Lernen“, Aachen, 10 February 2026.
  • Maniok, Reis und Sklavenhandel. Transatlantische Food History im Geschichtsunterricht, Conference „Klassiker des Geschichtsunterrichts – globalhistorisch perspektiviert“, Essen, 26 June 2025.
  • (K)eine Krone für den König des Kongo. Kapuzinermissionare als Vermittler zwischen Kongo und Rom, 1648-1712, Talk in the colloquium of Early Modern European History, Humboldt University, Berlin, 25 June 2025.
  • Agency and Representation of Enslaved Women in the Capuchin Hospice of Kimbangu, Kingdom of Kongo (1701), International Conference “(Un)Freedom in Global Perspective. Actors – Perceptions – Agencies”, Innsbruck, 4 February 2025.
  • A Mission to the ‘King of the Water’. Narrating Uncertainty on the Border of the Kingdom of Kongo (1698), 11th Cambridge-Tübingen Workshop, Tübingen, 16 September 2024.
  • Mission als Beziehungsgeschichte. Akteure und Übersetzungsräume in der Kapuzinermission im Königreich Kongo (ca. 1645-1715), “Frankfurter Sommerkurs zur Geschichte der FNZ 2024: Religion Postkolonial?“, Frankfurt a.M., 26 July 2024.
  • Die vernachlässigte Seite des Atlantiks. Quellen und Methoden zu Westafrika im „Zeitalter der Entdeckungen“, Conference „Klassische Themen des Geschichtsunterrichts globalgeschichtlich perspektiviert“, Braunschweig, 29 February 2024.
  • Tracing the wild dog. Interpreting African knowledge about animals in a Capuchin mission report (1712) and its translations, Informal Workshop “Knowledge & Translation in the early modern Atlantic World”, Tübingen, 9 February 2024.
  • The elephant in the room. De-centring an episode in Girolamo da Montesarchio's report of the Capuchin mission in the Kingdom of Kongo (17th century), 10th Cambridge-Tübingen Workshop, Cambridge, 11 September 2023.