Dr. des Alexander Obermüller

RESEARCH Interest

• Global history, urban history, health humanities, conservatism, identity politics, carceral state

EDUCATION

• Universität Erfurt:Ph.D. History, 2021 to 2024 (summa cum laude), Dissertation: "On the Right Side: US-Conservatives’ Identity-based Politics and Contested Democracy, 1980–2000"
  Supervisor: Prof. Jürgen Martschukat and Prof. David K. Johnson
• University of South Florida:M.A. US History, 2019 to 2021 "Thesis: Between Soledad and Attica Brothers: The Raiford Protests and Prison Activism in Florida"
  Supervisor: Prof. David K. Johnson
• Universität Wien: M.A. History, 2016 to 2019 Thesis: ‘Vienna to the Rescue’: A Social History of Vienna’s First Responders
  Supervisor: Prof. Christa Ehrmann-Hämmerle
  B.A. History, 2010 to 2015

VISITING POSITIONS/ ARCHIVAL WORK

• Philadelphia, 2–3/2025: Drexel, Penn, and Temple University Archives, College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Historical Society of Pennsylvania
  Funding: German Historical Institute
• Chicago and Washington D.C., 4–5/2023: University of Chicago, Wheaton College, National Archives
  Funding: Gerda Henkel Foundation
• University of Pennsylvania, 1–3/2023:
  Host: Prof. Mia Bay
  Funding: German Academic Exchange Service
• Washington D.C., 05/2022
  Library of Congress
  Funding: German Historical Institute
• Berkeley, Providence, New Haven, 02–04/2022:
  Bancroft Library, John Hay Library, Beinecke Library
  Funding: Gerda Henkel Foundation

EMPLOYMENT/ AFFILIATION

• Research Group “Voluntariness”, Erfurt, Affiliated Researcher, since 2025
• SFB “Structural Change of Property”, Erfurt, Postdoctoral Researcher, 06–12/2024
• Universität Erfurt, PhD Candidate, 2021 to 2024
• Momentum Institut, Vienna, Administrative Assistant, 2020
• Universität Wien, Vienna, Research Assistant, 2018 to 2019
• Momentum Kongress, Steyr, Head Organizer, 2016 to 2018

PUBLICATIONS

Martschukat, J., Obermueller, A. and Patt, L. (2024). Umkämpfte Demokratie. Unterdrückungserfahrung, Identitätspolitiken & Sex in den USA seit den 1970er Jahren. Zeithistorische Forschungen 20.3, 426–454.

Obermueller, A. (2024). Malingerer Metropolis: Performing Illness and Bodily Trickery in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna. in: Auf den Kopf gestellt: Interdisziplinäre Betrachtungen der Trickster-Figur, Hannah Michel, Lisa Rettinger, and Rafaela Rettinger (eds.). Rombach Wissenschaft, 93–109.

Obermueller, A. (2023). To the Rescue: First Responders and Medical(ized) Bodies in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna. Seminar. A Journal for Germanic Studies 59.1, 94–115.

MISCELLANEOUS

• HSozKult.de
  Reviews, Conference Reports
• 12februar1934.at
  map of events during the Austrian Civil War

SCHOLARSHIPS, GRANTS & AWARDS

• Spring 2025, German Historical Institute
  Research Fellowship, (€6,400)
• June 2024, Fachverband Medizingeschichte
  Best Paper Award, (€1,000)
• March 2024, Universität Erfurt,
  Editorial Fund, (€2,700)
• Spring 2023, German Academic Exchange Service
  Research Fellowship (€6,700)
• May 2022, German Historical Institute
  Research Fellowship, (€3,200)
• 2021–2024, Gerda Henkel Foundation
  PhD Stipend, (€60,000
• 2020, Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference
  Best Graduate Student Paper
• 2019–2021, Fulbright Austria
  MA Stipend, (€32,000)

TEACHING

• Universität Hamburg
  Summer 2025: Treating Injuries, Preventing Epidemics, and Building State Power: Ambulances and Public Health in the United States and Beyond, 1860s–1930s, Roadtrip: Key Themes of US History in and through Urban Histories,
  Resisting Mass Incarceration: Prison Organizing Behind and Beyond Bars, 1970s-2020s, New Research in US History
• Universität Halle/Saale
  Winter 2024/25: Sexing Education: A Global History of Sex Education and the Ensuing Panics
  Winter 23/24: Classroom Conservatives: Fights over Evolution, Segregation, Prayer, Sex Education, and Textbooks in US Schools, 1920s–2020s
• Universit Erfurt
  Winter 2022/23: Race and Religion in US History, with Moana J. Packo
  Winter 2021/22: Concerning Conservatism: Seminar on the Politics, Culture, and History of the US-Right since 1945, with Pia Beumer

CONFERENCES & TALKS

2025
“Central European History Convention,” Vienna
“Stretching the Limits of Global Urban History,” Berlin
“Politische Teilhabe als Anti-Politik: Konservativer Aktivismus in den Vereinigten Staaten,” Erfurt
“Illusion, Fake, and Fraud in American History,” Bad Tutzing
“Healing Institutions,” Philadelphia
“Barnes International Workshop,” Philadelphia

2024
Sin, Shame, Symptom: Suicide & Social Change,” Ljubljana
Colloquium Medizingeschichte, Mainz

2023
“Governing Through Violence,” Paris
“How to Take Patients’ Histories,” Utrecht
“The Birth of the Clinic,” Prague
2nd Michael Gordon Memorial Conference, Milwaukee
28th James A. Barnes Conference, Philadelphia

2022
“Auf den Kopf gestellt,” Munich
“Identitätspolitik zw. Bashing & Befreiung,” Munich [online]

2021
Graduate School of North America Studies, Berlin [online]
GAAS Young Scholars Forum, Bad Tutzing [online]

2020

Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference, Winter Park
Graduate History Conference, Miami
Graduate Student Conference, Tampa
[all canceled due to Covid]