Prof. Dr. Julia Herzberg

Julia Herzberg studied German, History and Russian in Cologne, Volgograd and Moscow. She obtained her Doctorate (2011) from the University of Bielefeld with a study on peasant autobiographies in the transition between the Tsarist Empire and the Soviet Union. From 2009 to 2013, she was Research Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society at Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) and from 2013 to 2016 Assistant Professor at the Chair of Modern and Eastern European History at the University of Freiburg. In the winter semester 2015/2016, she was Interim Professor at the LMU and the University of Regensburg. From 2016 to 2023, she was Professor for the History of East Central Europe/Russia in the Pre-Modern Times at the LMU and the University of Regensburg. 

Julia Herzberg has been Deputy Director of the GWZO and Professor of the Cultural History of Eastern Europe at the University of Leipzig since October 2023.

• History of Eastern Europe from the Middle Ages to the 20th century
• The Tsarist Empire in the Age of Enlightenment
• History of science, technology, and the environment in Central and Eastern Europe
• Popular autobiography / biographical research

• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board at the »Max Weber Network Eastern Europe« (since 2025)
• Founding Member of the Network for Sustainable Sciences [Netzwerk Nachhaltige Wissenschaft] (since 2024)
• Board Member of the »Graduate School Global and Area Studies« at the University of Leipzig (since 2023)
• Co-initiator of the initiative #metoohistory (since 2023)
• Member of the DFG Scientific Network »Russian Ecospheres. Forms of Ecological Knowledge in Russian Literature, Culture and History« (2022–2024)
• Member of the International Georg-Wilhelm-Steller-Society [Internationale Georg-Wilhelm Steller-Gesellschaft e.V.] (since 2022)
• Member of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies [Zentrum für Mittelalter- und Renaissancestudien] at the LMU Munich (2021–2023)
• Member of the German Association for Historians [Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands] (since 2021)
• Principal Investigator and Deputy Equal Opportunities Officer at the newly established Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies at the University of Regensburg (2020–2023)
• Consultant at the Evaluation of the Czech Academy of Sciences in the period from 2015 to 2019 (2020)
• Principal Investigator of the SFB 1369 »Cultures of Vigilance. Transformations – Spaces – Practices« at the LMU Munich (2019–2023)
• Member of the DAAD Selection Committee concerning research scholarships from Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Southern Caucasus (since 2019)
• Member of the Association of the Historians of Eastern Europe [Verband der Osteuropahistorikerinnen und -historiker e.V.] (since 2018)
• Women’s Representative at the Faculty of History and the Arts at the LMU Munich (2017–2021)
• Member of the Faculty Committee at the LMU Munich (2017–2021)
• Principal Investigator at the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies at the LMU Munich and the university of Regensburg (2017–2023)
• Principal Investigator of the research focus »Models of Change. Functions, Semantics, Practices in the Modern Age« at the Center for Advanced Studies at the LMU Munich (2017–2018)
• Member of the Academic Board of the Doctoral Program »Environment and Society« at the LMU Munich (since 2016)
• Member of the European Society for Environmental History (since 2013)
• Member of the Turku Book Prize 2013 Committee (2011–2013)
• Member of the Steering Committee »Agriculture between Idyll and Dystopia: Green Genetic Engineering as a Projection Screen for Images of Nature« [Landwirtschaft zwischen Idyll und Dystopie: Grüne Gentechnik als Projektionsfläche von Naturbildern] at the Center for Advanced Studies in Munich (2010–2012)
• Member of the »Center for Biographical Research« [Zentrum für Biographik] (since 2008), speaker of the Center (9/2010–9/2012)
• Board Member of the International Doctoral Study Program in History at the university of Bielefeld (2008–2009)
• Board Member of the »Bielefeld International Graduate School in History« (BIGH) (2006–2009)
• Member of the Graduate School 1049 at the university of Bielefeld (2005–2008), speaker of the scholarship holders (10/2005–4/2006)
• Member of the DAAD Selection Committee for scholarship holders to the CIS (2003–2004)

2019 Atmospheric Science Librarians International (ASLI) CHOICE Honourable Mention Award for Julia Herzberg, Christian Kehrt, Franziska Torma (Hg.), Ice and Snow in the Cold War: Histories of Extreme Climatic Environments (The Environment in History). New York 2018.

From 2004 to 2023, Julia Herzberg taught various courses, including Eastern European studies and history, at the universities of Cologne, Bielefeld, Munich, Freiburg im Breisgau and Regensburg. 

Since the winter semester of 2023/24, she has taught courses in European Studies and history at the University of Leipzig.

Completed dissertations: 

• 2024 - Andrei Vinogradov, »In Dire Straits: Struggle with Industrial Water Pollution and Emergence of Russia’s Environmental Policy (1873-1931)«, (first supervisor), LMU Munich, as part of the doctoral programme »Environment and Society«.
• 2021 - David Khunchukashvili, »The Beginnings of the Last Tsardom: Political Eschatology in Muscovite Rus' between Byzantium and the Holy Roman Empire«, (first supervisor), LMU Munich.
• 2021 - Anna Gesa Biermann, »Recipes for Sustainability: Understanding Social and Material Impacts of Public and Private Food Practices«, member of the doctoral committee, Faculty of Geosciences, LMU Munich.
• 2021 - Valentina Roxo, »Struggle for Oil: An Environmental History of West Siberia, 1961-1978«, (third-party supervision), LMU Munich.
• 2020 - L. Sasha Gora, »Culinary Claims: The Representation of Indigenous Foodways in Canada«, (second supervision), LMU Munich.
• 2020 - Sophie Gueudet, »Bridges on the Drina: History, modalities and outcomes of the bilateral cooperations between Serbia and Republika Srpska (1995-2016)«, (member of the jury), LMU Munich and Institut D'Études Politiques D'Aix-en-Provence-Cherpa.
• 2019 - Nora Mengel, »Biograph(i)en of the Empire? On the work and self-image of Constantin von Wurzbach and Aleksandr A. Polovcov«, (second supervisor), LMU Munich.
• 2019 - Brendan Röder, »The body of the priest: Physical infirmities in clemency proceedings before the Council Congregation (ca. 1580-1720) «, (third supervision), LMU Munich.
• 2019 - Vera Shibanova, »A History of Russian Paedology: Approaches to the Scientificization and Normalization of Childhood (1901-1936)«, (third-party supervision), LMU Munich.
• 2019 Pavla Šimkova, »Spectacle: A History of Boston's Urban Islands«, (third-party supervision), LMU Munich.
• 2018 - Evgenia Bezborodova, »The Role of the Imaginary in Soviet War Films: On the Subversion of Symbolic Order and Ideology in Film Art after Stalinism«, (third-party supervision), LMU Munich.

Current dissertations: 

• Lisa Füchte, M.A.: »The care side of work: (In)Visibilities of care work in future plans, life realities and regimes of the gaze after the Russian revolutions of 1917« (research assistant at the GWZO).
• Artur Hilgenberg, »The communal property of the Don Cossacks: Origin and development until 1835«, (second supervisor), University of Regensburg.
• Maria Knyazeva, »Media Build Bridges: An Analysis of the Development and Coverage of Integration Themes in Russian-Language Print Media in Germany (1990-2020)«, Graduate School Global and Area Studies.
• Leipzig. Olga Trufanova, »Absorbing the Asian Frontier: Food and food-related knowledge in seventeenth and eighteenth century Siberia«, (first supervisor), University of Regensburg.