The Joint Initiative in German and European Studies (JIGES) is delighted to welcome Prof. Cornelius Torp as the 2015-16 DAAD Hannah Arendt Visiting Chair. JIGES is an initiative of the Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies and is supported through generous support from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Prof. Torp teaches Modern History at the Universities of Augsburg and Halle, Germany. Recently, he was a Research Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) and a Marie Curie Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. Prof. Torp has published widely on Modern German and European History, the History of Globalization and on the History of the Welfare State. Among his recent books are Gerechtigkeit im Wohlfahrtsstaat. Alter und Alterssicherung in Deutschland und Großbritannien von 1945 bis heute (2015) and The Challenges of Globalization. Economy and Politics in Germany 1860-1914 (2014). He is also the author of numerous articles in journals ranging from Central European History to Germany History and the editor of Economic Crises and Global Politics in the 20th Century (2014, ed. with A. Nützenadel), as well as of Challenges of Aging: Pensions, Retirement and Social Justice (2015). Future research interests include a world history of gambling.
Prof. Torp will teach two courses during his stay in Toronto:
Imperial Germany, 1871-1918
Imperial Germany, its structure, its dynamic development and its legacy will be at the center of this course. We focus on the diverse aspects of the profound social, political and cultural change the German Empire underwent between its foundation and the end of the First World War. The seminar combines a discussion of historiographical controversies and the study of primary sources in translation.
The History of the European Welfare State
The course provides a broad introduction into the history of the European welfare state from the late 19th century until today. Starting from the German case it traces the development of the diverse models of welfare state provision for old age, illness and unemployment from a cross-national comparative perspective. The course focuses both on the political and social origins of the welfare state and the fundamental changes it provoked.
