Katherine Barbara Aaslestad

Teaching Fields

Modern Europe
Nineteenth Century Europe
Modern Germany

Contact

220A Woodburn Hall
P.O. Box 6303
Morgantown, WV 26506-6303
Phone: (304) 293-2421 ext. 5237
Fax: (304) 293-3616
Katherine.Aaslestad@mail.wvu.edu

• Degrees

  University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL
  Ph.D. in History, May 1997
  Master of Arts in History, 1987
  Major field: Modern European History
  Minor fields: German History, International Affairs, Russian History

  Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, VA
  Bachelor of Arts in History, Magna Cum Laude and Final Honors, 1985

  Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, New York, NY
  Teaching Certificate in Graham Technique and Apprentice for Graham Dance Company, 1983-1985

• Research Interests

  Katherine Barbara Aaslestad specializes in modern Germany, in particular the long nineteenth century. Her book, Place and Politics: Local Identity, Civic Culture, and German Nationalism in North Germany during the Revolutionary Era, was published by Brill Press in their Studies in Central European Histories Series. It explores the commercial and political culture of the Hanseatic Cities, especially Hamburg. It examines the consequences of Napoleonic and international warfare on regional and civic identity in northern Germany. Aaslestad has also published book chapters and articles on republicanism, consumer culture, economic warfare, the commemoration of war, and war and gender in edited collections and in Central European History and European History Quarterly.

  Her current research relates to a larger international research project “Kriegsenden, nachkriegordnungen und Folgekonflickte im 19./20. Jahrhundert im Vergleich” sponsored by the Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt in Potsdam. This project explores four different eras of warfare to explore social transitions as conflicts end and stability emerges. Aaslestad’s project, “Phoenix out of the Ashes: War, Demobilization, and Civic Recovery in the Republican City-States of Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck, 1813-1830,” contributes at least two important elements to the overall project: the importance of the Napoleonic era for modern warfare and the civil society of republican city-states in a region dominated by dynasties and monarchs. This research will also support her next book, “After the Wars: North Germany following the Napoleonic Era, 1813-1840.” This project explores the transition from war to peace in 1815 within a rich comparative framework through the following key themes: the demobilization of soldiers and the subsequent organization of veteran societies, economic recovery from the costs of the war, the public memory and memorialization of the wars, and the immediate use of wars as means of legitimating or delegitimating post-war state governments and rulers.

• Grad Students Advised

  MA
  Fabio Capano
  Megan E. McGee

• Courses Offered

  History 102/ Honors 102, Western Civilization, II
  History 207/ Honors 207, Nineteenth Century Europe
  History 221, History of Modern Germany since 1800
  Honors History 293J European History 1600-2000
  History 421, Hitler and the Third Reich
  History 422, Twentieth Century Germany
  History 484, Research Seminar on Modern Germany
  History 493M, German Cultural and Art History
  History 717, Readings in Modern Europe
  History 708 Graduate Readings on German Central Europe
  History 795, Independent Studies for graduate students including, Readings on Nineteenth Century Germany, Readings on German Social and Economic History, German and East European Relations

• Publications

  Place and Politics: Local Identity, Civic Culture, and German Nationalism in North Germany during the Revolutionary Era, Studies in Central European Histories Series, (Leiden and Boston: Brill Press, 2005).

  Articles:
  “Patriotism and Gender in Republican Hamburg 1750-1814,” in European History Quarterly, 37(4), 2007, 582-602.

  “Krieg und Identität in Hamburg:1806, Wirtschaftskrieg und moderner hanseatischer Regionalismus,” Hamburger Wirtschafts-Chronik, Neue Folge 6 (2006), 45-75.

  “The Continental System and Imperial Exploitation,” in Napoleon and the Empire, edited by Philip Dwyer and Alan Forrest (Palegrave, 2007) 114-132.

  “Paying for War: Experiences of Napoleonic Rule in the Hanseatic Cities,” Central European History, December 2006, 39/4, 641-675.

  “1806 and its Aftermath: Revisiting the Period of the Napoleonic Wars in German Central European Historiography,” (co-authored with Karen Hagemann) Central European History, December 2006, 39/4, 547-579.

  “Sitten und Mode, Fashion, Gender, and Public Identities in Hamburg,” in Gender in Transition: Breaks, and Continuities in German-Speaking Europe, 1750-1830, edited by Marion Gray and Ulrike Gleixner (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006), 282-318.

  “Remembering and Forgetting: The Local and the Nation in Hamburg’s Commemorations of the Wars of Liberation,” Central European History, vol. 38. no. 3, September 2005, 384-416.

  “Old Visions and New Vices: Republicanism and Civic Virtue in Hamburg’s Print Culture, 1790-1810,” in Patriotism, Cosmopolitanism, and National Culture: Public Culture in Hamburg, 1700-1933, edited by Peter Uwe Hohendahl (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2003), 143-165.