Professur für Neuere Geschichte Christian Stenz
Contact
Christian Stenz
2nd Floor, Room 224
History Department
Grabengasse 3-5
D-69117 Heidelberg
Tel.: +49 6221/54 3705
E-Mail: christian.stenz@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de
Office hours: Tuesday 13-14 Uhr (or with appointment)
Christian Stenz is a PhD candidate at the Department of History. He received a BA in History and Political Science from the University of Zurich in 2019 and completed his MA in History at the University of Heidelberg in 2022. In spring 2026, Christian Stenz spent a semester as a Visiting Research Student at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). His research has also taken him on several research stays, including at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City, the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., as well as to Guatemala and England. He currently works as a pre-doctoral lecturer at the Department of History at the University of Heidelberg, where he teaches seminars and tutorials on colonial history, the history of Latin America, and the history of capitalism.
Research
In his dissertation project, Christian Stenz examines 'scientific' collections and collecting practices of plantation owners in Guatemala in the 19th century. Thereby, he studies in particular the overlap between economic and scientific practices, the production and circulation of knowledge and the marginalisation of indigenous knowledge systems. He also researches the capitalist practices and interactions of consular agents, merchants and plantation owners and examines their role in the globalisation processes of the 'long' 19th century. His research interests include the global history of knowledge and science, the social and economic history of Latin America and the colonial history of the German-speaking regions.
As a 'side project', Christian Stenz transcribed the extensive correspondence of Elisabetha Bleuler-Fahrner, who married a Swiss agro-entrepreneur in 1878 and subsequently moved with him to Guatemala. Bleuler-Fahrner's letters to her family and friends in Zurich and Mannheim allow to study the role of women and households in processes of global economic integration. In particular, by providing forms of sociability, hospitality and opportunities for social interaction, the household constituted a crucial form of 'social infrastructure' through which global commercial relationships were established and sustained. At the same time, the correspondence highlights the ambivalent character of this process. While women contributed to global economic integration, this process remained deeply structured by gendered hierarchies and divisions of labour.
Teaching winter term 26/27
Source Analysis Seminar: Rich Kids, Campesinos and Wealthy Housewives. Historical Sources for a (Global) Social History of the 'Long' Nineteenth Century