Research
The Institute for North American History is dedicated to the study of North American history from the 18th century until today. Our teaching and research looks at processes of social formation, the construction of individual and collective identities as well as transnational networks in the Atlantic and Pacific worlds. The Institute .works in close cooperation with, and is situated at the intersection of the History and American Studies departments.
The Institute engages in social and cultural analyses with a focus on gender theory, theories of space, and postcolonial perspectives. Research areas include cultural history, gender studies, African American history, the history of travel and tourism, and the history of space and the built environment. Our research projects explore a) forms of social participation, marginalization/discrimination with a focus on gender and race relations; b) the meanings of space and the built environment as reflections of and agents in power relations; c) forms of exchange and interaction in travel and tourism; and d) children and teenagers as agents of history, a perspective informed by historical Childhood Studies.