Reading the history of society through the lens of a history of sexuality

in Andererseits: yearbook of transatlantic German studies (in press)

Thomas Vercruysse (dir.), Luxembourg – Ville créative, Capybara Books 2015, 269 p.

in Hemecht: Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte (2019), 3

Luxembourg – Ville créative est un ouvrage riche du regard pluridisciplinaire des universitaires et experts en sémiotique, philosophie, littérature, histoire et cinéma. C’est aussi un ouvrage éclectique ... [more ▼]

Luxembourg – Ville créative est un ouvrage riche du regard pluridisciplinaire des universitaires et experts en sémiotique, philosophie, littérature, histoire et cinéma. C’est aussi un ouvrage éclectique puisque le concept de ville créative n’est véritablement opérant que dans le cadre de certaines contributions, pour analyser les conséquences et manifestations de certains développements métropolitains (e.g. développement du quartier du Limpertsberg et, en creux, l’urbanisation du plateau du Kirchberg). Les contributions plus littéraires proposent davantage des regards s’inspirant de la géocritique donnant à montrer comment la (mé)connaissance d’un lieu participe à la construction d’une représentation. [less ▲]

Karlheinz Weber, Ihre Majestät, die Posaune. Eine Entdeckungsreise, crescendo-brass, Würzburg 52017 (12009), illustrations, index, bibliography.

in IGEB Mitteilungsblatt (2019), 2019(2 / Spring), 4

The author, Karlheinz Weber is one of only a few orchestral musicians and teachers who also approaches his instrument scientifically. The book, a reference work, has now been published in its fifth ... [more ▼]

The author, Karlheinz Weber is one of only a few orchestral musicians and teachers who also approaches his instrument scientifically. The book, a reference work, has now been published in its fifth edition. The subdivision into three main chapters is logically coherent. With 148 pages, the most comprehensive first chapter deals with the trombone’s development in a broad historical context, beginning with Ancient Egypt. [less ▲]

Higher Education in Germany - recent developments in an international perspective

in Comparative Education (2019), 55(2), 292-294

Review of Elizabeth Guffey (2018). Designing Disability: Symbols, Space and Society.

in Design Issues (2019)

In her pathbreaking book Designing Disability: Symbols, Space and Society, Elizabeth Guffey provides vital insights into decades of social and design processes that ultimately produced the most ubiquitous ... [more ▼]

In her pathbreaking book Designing Disability: Symbols, Space and Society, Elizabeth Guffey provides vital insights into decades of social and design processes that ultimately produced the most ubiquitous symbol of disability—and accessibility—worldwide: The International Symbol of Access (ISA). Building on existing scholarship from a range of disciplines coupled with original historical research, this book uncovers the origins and evolving (largely transatlantic) architectural and design discourse, and several moments of serendipity, that led to its creation. The ISA has since diffused to become part of the built environment in all corners of the world. Richly illustrated and charting at times vitriolic debates, protest activities, and artistic interventions up to the contemporary era, Guffey weaves together activist and aesthetic perspectives into a tapestry of social and design history relating to disability and accessibility. Structured in historical phases, the book’s chapters progress across larger and shorter stretches over more than a century of wheelchair design, social and welfare policies and programs (mostly in the US, UK, and Scandinavia), architectural standards, and symbols relating to barriers and accessibility measures. Guffey engages the reader in what is necessarily a multidisciplinary, multilevel investigation, with unexpected twists and turns. On one level, the book focuses on the politics of highest office, with US Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower (who permanently or temporarily used wheelchairs) sketched against the backdrop of the lack of accessible government buildings in Washington, DC, and the social consensus then to hide impairment for fear of stigmatization (shifted marginally by disabled Veterans). On another level, welfare state provisions in the US, UK, and Scandinavia are discussed in light of progressive legislation and the persistent challenges of implementation. Finally, at ground level, the utmost significance of individuals devoted to universal design writ large becomes manifestly evident. Guffey recounts how, in US universities, inspirational figures such as Timothy Nugent (at Illinois), Ron Mace (at North Carolina State), and Viktor Papanek (at Purdue, CalArts, Kansas, etc.), campus planners, and students designed and constructed new worlds on the drawing board and poured in concrete. We follow design professionals, such as architect Selwyn Goldsmith in the UK, who was a strident arbiter of accessibility. Academic initiatives went hand-in-fist with advocacy activities in organizations and protest and artistic actions in the streets. Indeed, to raise general awareness of the ever-present attitudinal and structural barriers—institutionalized discrimination—that disabled people face daily and to secure disability rights, disability protests and cross-national organizing have repeatedly been necessary. The long and bumpy road to universal design extends into the future. Integral to this history of design development, revision, and critiques of various symbols of disability have been international events (world expositions, Olympics & Paralympics) and organizations (Rehabilitation International), artistic inspiration, design competitions, and guerilla art interventions. Tracing the convoluted process of designing what would become the ISA—fifty years ago now—leads to Susanne Koefoed, a Danish design student, and Karl Montan, leader of the Swedish Institute for the Handicapped, but also to international negotiations and chance. The on-going questioning of the official ISA, especially, its “misfit” nature as an amalgam of technical aid and person, emphasizes the shift from invisibility to ubiquity of disability via social change and political activism as well as cultural representations and the need for signs of identity. In the new century, newer initiatives in the US, such as Brendan Murphy’s and the Accessible Icon Project (developed by Sara Hendren and Brian Glenney), have challenged the official ISA, revealing both persistence and change in understandings of disability and accessibility. When integrated into signage, the ISA designates accessible spaces and facilities. If the ISA has become present in public buildings and spaces everywhere, cultural notions of disability and access remain understudied across the social sciences, with especially the Global South remaining a blank page. Research is needed to chart the diverse local interpretations that mirror shifts from exclusion to inclusion of disabled people as the human rights revolution witnessed since the end of WWII continues, but also suffers backlash, even in the Global North. Paradoxically, this global icon refers simultaneously to disability, and its ameliorating factor, accessibility. Yet, the ambivalence and debate surrounding the ISA persist, as Guffey emphasizes especially in the later chapters, focusing on proposed alternatives to the existing ISA, codified as it is in law and conforming to the guidelines of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Until universal design (and the universalizing social policies likely needed to support it) succeeds in reducing the barriers in environments and in attitudes and in maximizing the usefulness of products and services during the design stage, identity formation processes are among the most positive aspects of the ISA. The icon’s influence and implementation extend far beyond marking modifications to the built environment. Whether taken-for-granted, modified or critiqued, the current ISA has spread globally. It can now be found wherever people move in physical space, finding their way. The symbol testifies to the on-going shift from exclusion, along a slow and winding road, to social inclusion and full participation of disabled people. In sum, Guffey brings scholarship on the ISA to the next stage. It complements studies that chart the influence of disabled peoples’ organizations and of international organizations as they facilitated remarkable shifts in disability paradigms. Yet institutionalized discrimination abounds, with the ISA marking that accessibility and universal design are far from achieved. If a few imprecisions tarnish the literature list, this historical work reconstructing a largely Western process cannot be faulted for not providing a complete global analysis of ISA implementation and adjustment. In that vein, with contributions from Guffey herself, the current exhibition “Viktor Papanek: The Politics of Design” (Kries, Klein & Clarke, 2018) indeed extends the discussion to the Global South and across further disciplines, rightfully embedding the dialogue about symbols of disability and enhancing access within broader contexts. Footnote: Kries, Matteo, Amelie Klein & Alison J. Clarke (eds.) (2018). Viktor Papanek: The Politics of Design. Weil am Rhein, Germany: Vitra Design Museum. ISBN: 978-3-945852-26-2. The exhibition is currently on view at Germany’s Vitra Design Museum (20 September 2018–10 March 2019), then at Barcelona Design Museum (20 October 2019–2 February 2020). [less ▲]

Fragmente einer neuen Sprache des Rechts : Die nachgelassenen Reflexionen eines Philologen über die Grundlagen der Gerechtigkeit

in Literaturkritik.de (2019)

Texte et Image, Dialog/ues. Schrift & Bild, éd. Claude D. Conter & Myriam Sunnen, Centre national de Littérature, 2018

in Hémecht. Revue d'Histoire luxembourgeoise (2019), 71(3), 376-378

Besprechung zu Sebastian Bischoff, Kriegsziel Belgien

in Sehepunkte (2018), (7/8),

ROLF HANDROW: Berühmte Posaunen-Virtuosen. Friedrich August Belke. Carl Traugott Queisser. Albert Robert Müller. Joseph Serafin Alschausky & Posaunisten des Gewandhausorchesters Leipzig

in IGEB Mitteilungsblatt (2018), (1),

Rezension zu: Peter Henrich, mit Beiträgen von Petra Held, Corina Knipper und Kurt W. Alt, Das gallorömische Theater von Dalheim „Hossengronn“ Luxemburg (Dossiers d’archéologie XV Musée national d’histoire et d’art / Centre national de recherche archéologique), Luxembourg 2015

in Hemecht: Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte (2018), 70(1), 105-108

review of Karel Hruza, ed., Regesten Kaiser Sigismunds (1410–1437)

in Speculum (2018), 93(2), 518

Urban Policy in the Time of Obama

in DISP Dokumente und Informationen zur Schweizerischen Orts-, Regional- und Landesplanung (2018), 54(212/1), 76

Der Geschmack längst vergangener Zeiten : In Peter Handkes "Die Obstdiebin" stehen die kleinen Begebenheiten im Fokus

in Literaturkritik.de (2018)

Rezension Jean-Paul Hoffmann, Familienchronik der Stadt Vianden

in Hemecht: Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte (2018), 70(2), 125-126

Rezension Gunter Altenkirch, Volks- und Aberglauben.

in Hemecht: Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte (2018), 70(1), 132-134

Batty Weber. Werk und Wirkung

in Hemecht: Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte (2018), 1

Compte-rendu de l'ouvrage de Bernhard Pöll : Französisch ausserhalb Frankreichs

in Vox Romanica (2018)

Compte-rendu de l’ouvrage de Vivian Pereira-Koschorreck : Kontaktanzeigen kontrastiv – Französische und deutsche Kontaktanzeigen im diachronen und sychronen Vergleich

in Frankreich-Forum (2018)

Review: Marc Birchen (2015). Die Firmenbeteiligungen der ARBED im Osteuropa der Nachkriegszeit: Luxemburger Wirtschaftsdiplomatie im Kalten Krieg. Frankfurt/M: Peter Lang

in Zeitschrift für Unternehmensgeschichte (2018), 63(1), 180-181

[Rezension] Hektor Haarkötter/Evelyn Runge: Motor/Reise. Basiswissen für die Medienpraxis

in MEDIENwissenschaft: Rezensionen, Reviews (2018), (2/3), 220-221

Review: Karl Pichol (2016). Geschichte(n) rund ums Papier. Ahlen: Eigenverlag

in Technikgeschichte (2018), 85(2), 136

Rez. v. Carlos Spoerhase: Das Format der Literatur : Praktiken materieller Textualität zwischen 1740 und 1830. Göttingen 2018

in Scientia Poetica (2018), 22

Compte-rendu du livre de Carolin Patzelt : Sprachdynamiken in modernen Migrationsgesellschaften

in Vox Romanica (2018)

Rezension zu: Krystina Solomon: Tristan-Romane: Zur spätmittelalterlichen Rezeption von Gottfrieds Tristan in den böhmischen Ländern. Göttingen: Kümmerle Verlag 2016.

in Zeitschrift für Interkulturelle Germanistik (2018), 9(1), 197-199

Review of Fact and Fiction in Global Energy Policy: 15 Contentious Questions

in Risk Analysis : An Official Publication of the Society for Risk Analysis (2018), In Press

In a so-called “Post-truth” era, the role of facts in society has become ever more ambiguous and contentious. Increasingly, facts are simultaneously used as a tool for risk assessment and risk management ... [more ▼]

In a so-called “Post-truth” era, the role of facts in society has become ever more ambiguous and contentious. Increasingly, facts are simultaneously used as a tool for risk assessment and risk management on the one hand, and an instrument of politicking and social polarisation on the other. That facts are subjective artefacts is not new. Pioneering sociologists like Emile Durkheim (Durkheim, 1996), Michel Foucault (Foucault, 2008, Burchell et al., 1991), and the Frankfurt School (Nicholas, 2012) (to name a few), have ruminated over the subjectivities of knowledge more than a century ago. But the difference in our current modern, hyper-globalised world is that the subjective nature of facts are increasingly both the best tool we have to deal with global risk, and a prime source of global risk at the same time. The question this raises, is how to deal with this paradox in policy? And is cooperation possible without consensus on whose facts are more true? [less ▲]

Rezension von: Jochen Plikat, Fremdsprachliche Diskursbewusstheit als Zielkonstrukt des Fremdsprachenunterrichts. Eine kritische Auseinandersetzunt mit der Interkulturellen Kompetenz

in Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen (2018), 47(Heft 1), 127-129

Migration and the Search for Home. Mapping Domestic Space in Migrants’ Everyday Lives (Book review)

in Migraciones (2017), (42), 151-153

Étienne Anheim, Clément VI au travail. Lire, écrire, prêcher au xive siècle Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne, 2014, 408 p.

in Hemecht : Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte = Revue d'Histoire Luxembourgeoise (2017)

A Negotiated Landscape. The Transformation of San Francisco’s Waterfront since 1950

in Local Environment (2017), 22(6), 784-785

Making other worlds possible

in Local Environment (2017), 22(7), 908-910

Review of the book by Carlo Lejeune (Hg.), Grenzerfahrungen. Eine Geschichte der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft Belgiens. Bd. 2

in Hemecht : Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte = Revue d'Histoire Luxembourgeoise (2017), 69(1), 114-115

Timothy Clark, Ecocriticism on the Edge. The Anthropocene as a Threshold Concept

in Local Environment (2017), 22(7), 906-908

Book Review: Policy Analysis of Structural Reforms in Higher Education

in Zeitschrift Hochschule und Weiterbildung (2017), 2

Compte-rendu de l'ouvrage de M. Gatti: European External Action Service

in Annuaire de Droit Européen (2017)

Rezension zu Carlo Lejeune / David Engels (Hg.), Grenzerfahrungen. Eine Geschichte der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft Belgiens. Band 1: Villen, Dörfer, Burgen (Altertum und Mittelalter), Eupen 2015

in Hemecht: Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte (2017), 65

Buchbesprechung von: Marie Ulrike SCHMIDT, Regesten zum Nikolaihospital. Die Urkunden aus dem Stadtarchiv Lüneburg (1251–1530) (Forschungen zum Nikolaihospital in Bardowick, 2; Quellen und Darstellungen zur Geschichte Niedersachsens, 137/2) Wehrhahn, Hannover 2015

in Mitteilungen des Instituts für Osterreichische Geschichtsforschung (2017), 125(2), 417-419

František Šmahel (éd.), en collaboration avec Ota Pavlíček, A Companion to Jan Hus, Brill, Leiden-Boston, 2015, 447 p., 162 euros, 9789004280557.

in Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique (2017)

Buchbesprechung von: Alexandra Druzynski von Boetticher: Die Leproserie St. Nikolai. Ein Beitrag zur Baugeschichte der Stadt Lüneburg im Mittelalter, Bd. 1 (Quellen und Darstellungen zur Geschichte Niedersachsens, Bd. 137/1) Wehrhahn, Hannover 2015

in Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung (2017), 125(2), 417-419

"The Politics of Suffering: Syria’s Palestinian Refugee Camps", Nell Gabiam, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2016

in Antipode (2017)

Buchbesprechung von: Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter Rudolf, Adolf, Albrecht, Heinrich VII. 1273-1313. 4. Abteilung: Heinrich VII. 1288/1308 – 1313. 2. Lieferung: 1. September 1309 – 23. Oktober 1313 [recte: 1310]

in Hemecht : Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte = Revue d'Histoire Luxembourgeoise (2016), 68(3),

Disparaître pour résister

in Acta Fabula : Revue des Parutions en Théorie Littéraire (2016), 17(4),

„Phantasma Nation. ‚Zigeuner‘ und Juden als Grenzfiguren des ‚Deutschen‘ (1770-1920)“ von Iulia-Karin Patrut

in Jahrbuch der Raabe-Gesellschaft (2016), 57

Rezension zu: Markus Löx: Monumenta sanctorum. Rom und Mailand als Zentren des frühen Christentums. Märtyrerkult und Kirchenbau unter den Bischöfen Damasus und Ambrosius. Wiesbaden 2013.

in Bonner Jahrbücher des Rheinischen Landesmuseums in Bonn und des Vereins von Altertumsfreunden im Rheinlande (2016), 215(2015), 581-585

Fighting for a Living. A Comparative History of Military Labour 1500-2000 (ed. by Erik-Jan Zürcher)

in International Review of Social History (2016), 61

Rezension zu: Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (Hg.), Imperium der Götter. Isis – Mithras – Christus. Kulte und Religionen im Römischen Reich

in FERA (2016), 29

Rezension zu Wilhelm Reusch, Marcel Lutz, Hans-Peter Kuhnen, Die Ausgrabungen im Westteil der Trierer Kaiserthermen 1960-1966. Der Stadtpalast des Finanzprocurators der Provinzen Belgica, Ober- und Niedergermanien (Archäologie aus Rheinland-Pfalz 1), Rahden/Westf. 2012.

in Hemecht: Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte (2016), 64

Rezension zu: Catherine Gaeng (Hg.): Archaeologia Mosellana. Hommage à Jeannot Metzler. Archéologie en Sarre, Lorraine et Luxembourg / Archäologie im Saarland, in Lothringen und Luxemburg. Tome 9, 2014.

in Hemecht : Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte = Revue d'Histoire Luxembourgeoise (2016), 03

Recension "Caws Mary Ann, Reynes-Delobel, Anne, Glorieuses modernistes. Art, écriture et modernité au féminin"

in Le français à l’université (2016)

Green Logistics – Improving the Environmental Sustainability of Logistics

in Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie (2016), 60(1-2), 99-100

From power to prejudice. The rise of racial individualism in Midcentury America, by Leah Gordon

in Ethnic and Racial Studies (2016)