Sabine Hanke earned her PhD in History from the University of Sheffield, UK, in January 2021. Her first monograph titled „Worlds of the Ring: Nation and Empire in the British and German Circus” was published in 2025 by Manchester University Press (rev. by Peter Yeandle in AHR 131, Issue 1, March 2026, pp. 432–433, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhaf760).
Before joining the University of Tübingen, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen’s Section on Global Mobility, spanning the 18th and 20th centuries, where she investigated transregional entanglements while also teaching courses in Modern History.
In her current project, she deepens her engagement with Human-Animal Studies by exploring the role of birds of paradise in the colonial context of New Guinea throughout the long nineteenth century. This project investigates how scientific knowledge, aesthetic practices, and economic interests intertwined, shaping global debates on conservation, commodification, and colonial power.
Sabine Hanke is passionate about public history and is committed to collaborative work with museums and public initiatives to critically engage with postcolonial histories and their lasting impact on contemporary society. Her most recent cooperations included working with the Zentrum für Erinnerungskultur on the colonial legacy in Duisburg and with the library of the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen in Stuttgart on their colonial collections.
