Dr Jeremy DeWaal

I am a historian of Germany with an interest in cultural and political history, the history of place and space, concepts of tradition, and the history of emotions. My first book, entitled Geographies of Renewal: Heimat and Democratization in West Germany, 1945-1990 (Cambridge University Press) intervenes in broader debates about the politics of local place attachment and their relationship to democracy. It does so by offering a revisionist history on the idea of Heimat (local/regional places of home) in the Federal Republic. The work further intervenes in ongoing debates about West German democratization. My second book project, situated in the field of the history of emotions, examines the radical re-invention of the Carnival tradition in German-speaking Europe across the longue durée. The research project is funded by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. 

I came to the University of Exeter  from the Friedrich Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg, and I received my Ph.D. in European History from Vanderbilt University. I previously spent a period as an Alexander-von-Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Free University of Berlin in the team of Prof. Dr. Paul Nolte. I have received grants in support of my research from the German Academic Exchange Service, the Fulbright Commission, the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation, the Central European History Society, and the AHRC. I have published in outlets including German History, European History Quarterly, and Central European History. 

Research supervision:
I am interested in supervising students with interests in my areas of specialty including European cultural history (particularly Germany), regionalism, ideas of home and belonging, the history of ritual tradition or in the history of emotions. Students with interests in these areas should feel free to contact me via email.