Institute for Economic and Social History

Dr. Katja Wezel

Research

  • Baltic History
  • Economic and Social History of Imperial Russia
  • Memory politics
  • Nationalism and ethnic conflicts
  • Spatial history
  • Digital history
  • Jews in the Pale of Settlement


Academic Employment and Education

  • Since 10/2025: Teaching Faculty and Programme Director (Goettingen) in the GLOCAL Programme at the Institute for Economic and Social History
  • 07/2023 – 09/2025: Research Associate in the project "At the Crossroads of Modernity. Double-Entry Accounting Business, and Cultural Practices of Jews in Imperial Russia's Western Borderlands" at the Institute for Economic and Social History, University of Göttingen
  • 12/2021 – 06/2023: Feodor-Lynen-Research Fellow of the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation at the University of Latvia in Riga
  • 04/2021 – 09/2021: Fellowship at Imre Kertész Kolleg in Jena
  • 10/2018 – 11/2021: Research Associate in the BKM funded project “The Cosmopolitan City. Riga as a Global Port and International Capital of Trade (1861-1939)” at the Department for Medieval and Modern History at the Georg-August University Göttingen
  • 2013 – 2018: DAAD Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of History, University of Pittsburgh, USA
  • 2011: PhD at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg with a topic on memory politics in post-Communist Latvia (published in German as Geschichte als Politikum. Lettland und die Aufarbeitung nach der Diktatur. Berlin: Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2016.)
  • 2011: Second state exam for teaching in History and English
  • 2010 – 2011: Instructor, Department of History, Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg
  • 2008 – 2009: Research Associate in East European History, Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg
  • 2005 – 2008: Research Fellow in the Interdisciplinary Junior Research Group (Graduiertenkolleg) “Overcoming Dictatorships in Europe”, Heidelberg University
  • 2004: MA in History and English at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg
  • 1999 – 2004: Studies in History and English at the University of Heidelberg, the University of Wales in Aberystwyth and the European University in St. Petersburg


Memberships

  • Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies
  • Baltische Historische Kommission (BHK), Mitglied des Vorstands
  • Verband der Osteuropahistorikerinnen und -historiker e.V. (VOH)


Fellowship and Grants

  • Feodor-Lynen Fellowship, Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation, 2021–23
  • Fellowship, Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena, 2021
  • REES Faculty Travel Grant, Russian and East European Studies Center, University of Pittsburgh, 2015, 2017
  • Jean Monnet Center of Excellence Faculty Research on the European Union Grant, European Studies Center, University of Pittsburgh, 2016
  • Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung [Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship], dissertation publication grant, 2015
  • DAAD Research Fellowship, Research Grant for Graduate Students, 2008
  • Young Researchers Award, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 2007
  • Graduate Student Fellowship, Heinrich Boell Foundation, 2005 – 2008
  • DAAD Undergraduate Study Scholarship, Annual Grant, 2002 – 2003
  • Erasmus, European
    Union Scholarship, 2000 – 2001