Institute for Economic and Social History

Dr. Katja Wezel

    Research

  • Baltic History
  • Economic and Social History of Imperial Russia's Western Borderlands
  • Memory politics
  • Nationalism and ethnic conflicts
  • Spatial history
  • Digital history
  • Current research project: :
    • In the Russian Empire, Jews were among the groups most associated with commerce and entrepreneurship. Indeed, many Jewish merchants were visible actors in the imperial Russian business world, some of them partially integrated into the society’s upper classes. At the same time, the association with commerce was one of the factors that led to Jews’ outsider status in imperial Russian society. Previous research has often presupposed an inherent connection between Jewish economic, communal and religious practices, and capitalism. The proposed project presents capitalist techniques of commerce as a novelty in the life of Eastern European Jews. It asks about ways in which Jews adopted these techniques, while emphasizing the role played by the German-speaking business world in Baltic cities, and looking at the connections between Jews and Baltic Germans.
    The system of double-entry bookkeeping, originally invented in 14th and 15th century Italy, was one of the most consequential innovations in the history of capitalism. The research project investigates the dissemination of double-entry accounting and other modern business practices in the western provinces of imperial Russia, asks about its cultural influences, and examines the role of Jewish and German business cultures in this process. The project targets two fields: 1) socio-economic history of Russia’s western borderlands and 2) Jewish cultural history. It analyzes the spread of commercial knowledge among Jews in the western provinces of imperial Russia, in particular in the area of today’s Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine in the 18th and 19th century. It analyzes files of customs offices, commercial courts and business journals as well as a set of new sources (such as accounting books and manuals) to offer novel insights into how Jewish culture entered modernity. In the course of our research we also aim to shed light on aspects of the general development of capitalist consciousness in imperial Russia.


Academic Employment and Education

  • since 07/2023: 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