Zeitgeschichte

Dr. Daniel Wollnik

Postdoctoral Fellow

Contact

daniel.wollnikspam prevention@rub.de

Curriculum Vitae

Since 2025
Postdoctoral Researcher

in the project “Violence in Post-Fascist Democracies” (funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation), University of Tübingen

2016–2025
Research Associate and Lecturer

Department of Japanese History, Ruhr University Bochum

2024
PhD

Ruhr University Bochum (summa cum laude)
Dissertation: ‘In the Service of the Public Good’: The Ministry of Communications (Teishinshō) and the Making of Japan’s Total War Mobilization, 1931–1945

2021–2022
Visiting Researcher

Aoyama Gakuin University (Tokyo)

2018
Visiting Researcher

Keiō-Universität (Tōkyō)

2014–2016
M.A.

Double Degree Program “German-Japanese Intercultural Studies / Japanese Language Education,” Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg & Keiō University (Tokyo)

2012–2013
Study Abroad

Keiō University (Tokyo)

2009–2014
B.A.

in Japanese Studies and Media Studies, Ruhr University Bochum

Research

Research Areas (Modern Japanese History)

  • Political and Bureaucratic History
  • Media and Communication History
  • Organizational and Administrative History
  • Historical Violence Studies

Scholarships and Awards

Scholarships

  • Since 10/2025: Postdoctoral Fellowship, Gerda Henkel Foundation, University of Tübingen
  • 2021–2022: Japan Foundation Fellowship (research stay at Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo)
  • 2018: Toshiba International Foundation Fellowship (research stay at Keiō University, Tokyo)
  • 2014–2016: German National Academic Foundation Scholarship
  • 2012–2013: German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) scholarship (study abroad at Keiō University, Tokyo)

Awards

  • 07/2026: Dissertation awarded the Wilhelm Hollenberg Prize by the Gesellschaft der Freunde der Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
  • 06/2025: Martin Behaim Award – Award for the dissertation by the Society for Global History (Gesellschaft für Globalgeschichte)
  • 01/2018: Young Scholars Award in Communication History – Award for the Master’s thesis by the German Communication Association (DGPuK)
  • 11/2014: Student Award – Award for the Bachelor’s thesis by Ruhr University Bochum

Publications

  • “Telecommunications and the Militarization of State and Society in Modern Japan.” In: Sebastian De Pretto, Sam Grinsell, Erika Hanna, and Odinn Melsted (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Modern Infrastructural History. Routledge (forthcoming).
  • „Rethinking the significance of the reform bureaucrats: ideological conflict and micropolitics in the making of state electricity control in 1930s Japan“. In: Japan Forum, 38, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1080/09555803.2026.2664458
  • “Nothing New? Bureaucratic Reforms and the Reorganization of the Ministry of Communications (Teishinshō) in Occupied Japan (1945–1952).” Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Vol. 24 (1), 2026, Cambridge University Press.
  • “The Telephone and Its Introduction to Japan in the Nineteenth Century – Discourse-Analytical Remarks on a Particular Case of Telephone History.” Medien & Zeit, 33 (3), 2018, pp. 69–74.