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Prof. Dr. Birte Förster

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Contact

1. Faculty of History, Philosophy and Theology / Department of History / Geschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts / Arbeitsbereich

E-Mail
birte.foerster@uni-bielefeld.de  
Homepage
Open
Phone
+49 521 106-12933  
Phone No. of Secretary
+49 521 106-3259 − Secretary's Details
Office
Gebäude X A3-236 − Locations Map
Availability

Consultation hours during the lecture-free period, 12 noon–1 pm via Zoom; register via the electronic course catalogue (ekvv) on
4 August 2026
1 September 2026
15 September 2026
29 September 2026

Information on initial supervision of BA and MA dissertations:
Please contact me in advance via email to discuss availability.
Followed by submission of the proposal, including topic, research question, source corpus and research literature, timetable, and discussion during the consultation.
Register your final dissertation promptly after the consultation appointment.

Information on co-supervision of BA and MA theses:
Please contact me in advance via email to discuss availability, including your primary supervisor, topic and research question.
Please then arrange a consultation appointment and send me your proposal in advance.

Make an appointment
Add to address-book

2. Faculty of History, Philosophy and Theology / Department of History

3. Faculty of History, Philosophy and Theology / Department of History / Global History, History of Entanglements / Mitglieder

4. Faculty of History, Philosophy and Theology / Department of History / Gesellschaft - Wissen - Umwelt / Mitglieder

5. SFB 1288 "Practices of comparing. Ordering and changing the world"

Associated Member

E-Mail
birte.foerster@uni-bielefeld.de  
Office
Gebäude X A3-236 − Locations Map
Add to address-book

6. BiSEd-Mitglieder / BiSEd-Mitglieder der Fakultät für Geschichtswissenschaft, Philosophie und Theologie

7. Faculty of History, Philosophy and Theology / Department of History / Global History, History of Entanglements / Speaker

8. Bielefeld University Press BiUP / Steering Committee

Member of the Steering Committee

Office
Gebäude X A3-248 − Locations Map

9. Center for Uncertainty Studies (CeUS)

10. Commissions / Commission for development of the university

11. Faculty of History, Philosophy and Theology / Department of History / World Studies: Orders, Politics, Cultures

Birte Förster (History) ist a professor for 19th and 20th century history, she is an expert in the the decolonisation of Africa, the global history of water energy production, the cultural history of the political as well as media and gender history. As a member of the focus area Contested Orders of Gender and Democracy she currently conducts research on radicalnationalist women during the Republic of Weimar.

Expert on

Curriculum Vitae

since 12/2024 Professor of 19th and 20th Century History

since 4/2021 Spokesperson for the profile area Global and Entangled History

since 4/2020 Associate member of the SFB 1288 "Practices of Comparison"

since 1/2020 Academic Senior Councillor at the Department of History, Bielefeld University

4-12/2019 Research Associate at the Institute for the History of Medicine and Medical Ethics, Charité Berlin

10/2017-3/2019 Deputy Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, University of Bremen

10/2015-9/2016 Research Fellow of the Gerda Henkel Foundation

4/2008-2/2016 Editorial director of the journal Neue Politische Literatur

04/2008-9/2017 Research assistant at the Institute for History, TU Darmstadt

02/2008 Doctorate/PhD studies at the University of Giessen

Current research topics

Birte Förster's current research interests lie in the areas of the decolonisation of Africa, the global history of water energy production, the cultural history of the political as well as media and gender history. She is also interested in literary constructions of the past. She is a member of the ConGed and SHIFT focus areas and the energistories research area at Bielefeld University.

Memberships and Functions

Member of the board of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies
Member of the Network for Gender Studies NRW
Member of the University Development Commission
Member of the Advisory Board of the International Archive for the Social History of German Literature IASL
Member of the Centre for Uncertainty Studies CeUS
Member of the steering committee of Bielefeld University Press
Association of Historians in Germany
Working Group on Historical Gender Studies