PD Dr. Florian Kühnel
Personal Details:
Florian Kühnel studied historical anthropology in Freiburg (M.A. 2007) and then completed his doctoral degree in early modern history in Münster (2012) where he was a member of the graduate school of the cluster of excellence “Religion and Politics”. From 2011 to 2016 he was a research associate at the chair for Early Modern European History at the Humboldt-University Berlin. Afterwards, he led the DFG-project “Experts of Diplomacy. The English Embassy Secretaries in Early Modern Istanbul” at the chair for Medieval and Early Modern Cultural History in Göttingen. He held research fellowships in Gotha (Herzog-Ernst), London (German Historical Institute & Gerda Henkel) and Paris (German Historical Institute). Florian joined the Leibniz Institute for European History in March 2022. In January 2024 he completed his habilitation in early modern and modern history at the Humboldt-University Berlin.
Research Interests:
• Historical anthropology
• Cultural history of diplomacy (esp. ‘non-ambassadorial diplomacy’, diplomacy and gender)
• Cultural encounters between Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire
• Honour, dishonour, infamy
• Historical intersectional analysis
• Forced mobility, transregional legal punishment
• Cultural history of diplomacy (esp. ‘non-ambassadorial diplomacy’, diplomacy and gender)
• Cultural encounters between Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire
• Honour, dishonour, infamy
• Historical intersectional analysis
• Forced mobility, transregional legal punishment
Selected Publications:
• Diplomatie als kollektive Praxis. Botschaftssekretäre und diplomatischer Alltag im frühneuzeitlichen Istanbul, Göttingen 2024 (Frühneuzeit-Forschungen 29). Open Access
• The Ambassador is Dead – Long Live the Ambassadress. Gender, Rank and Proxy Representation in Early Modern Diplomacy, in: The International History Review, 2021. Link
• (together with Christine Vogel) (Hgg.): Zwischen Domestik und Staatsdiener. Botschaftssekretäre in den frühneuzeitlichen Außenbeziehungen, Köln / Weimar / Wien 2021 (Externa 15). Link
• (together with Matthias Bähr) (Hgg.): Verschränkte Ungleichheit. Praktiken der Intersektionalität in der Frühen Neuzeit, Berlin 2018 (ZHF. Beihefte 56). Link
• Kranke Ehre? Adlige Selbsttötung im Übergang zur Moderne, München 2013. Link
• The Ambassador is Dead – Long Live the Ambassadress. Gender, Rank and Proxy Representation in Early Modern Diplomacy, in: The International History Review, 2021. Link
• (together with Christine Vogel) (Hgg.): Zwischen Domestik und Staatsdiener. Botschaftssekretäre in den frühneuzeitlichen Außenbeziehungen, Köln / Weimar / Wien 2021 (Externa 15). Link
• (together with Matthias Bähr) (Hgg.): Verschränkte Ungleichheit. Praktiken der Intersektionalität in der Frühen Neuzeit, Berlin 2018 (ZHF. Beihefte 56). Link
• Kranke Ehre? Adlige Selbsttötung im Übergang zur Moderne, München 2013. Link
Research projects:
Connect and Punish. The Galley Penalty in the Holy Roman Empire as a Translocal Practice
Throughout the whole early modern period, several territories of the Holy Roman Empire sentenced people to the galleys and afterwards transferred them to Mediterranean sea powers. This connected different authorities, legal systems and regions. Thus, the project analyses the galley penalty as a genuinely translocal practice that was as much a means of constructing Europe as a common space as were trade, science, art, war or diplomacy.
Difference in Everyday Life. Diplomacy as a Collective Practice in Early Modern Istanbul
The project asks what role difference played in (primarily English) diplomacy in early modern Istanbul. On the one hand, it expands the circle of actors and understands diplomacy as a 'collective practice'. On the other hand, it focuses less on courtly ceremonies and more on everyday diplomatic life.