Professor Beat Kümin

Personal Profile

I studied History and English at the University of Bern and completed doctoral research on late medieval parishes at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Following a research fellowship at Magdalene College, a Swiss National Science Foundation project on public houses and acting as Peter Blickle's assistant, I joined Warwick's History Department in January 2001. Since then, I obtained a Habilitation in early modern history (Bern 2005) and held visiting appointments, fellowships or secondments at Bielefeld (2011-12), GreifswaldLink opens in a new window (Alfried Krupp Wissenschafts-kolleg, 2012-13), KonstanzLink opens in a new window (2015 and 2018), Montreal (McGill 2022, #DigiMont22), Brussels (ULB/VUB #BrIASBK23, 2023) and Frankfurt (2023). In 2014, I directed Warwick's Centre for the Study of the RenaissanceLink opens in a new window and, from 2020-23, the 'Food & Drink Cultures' strand of Warwick's Global Research Priority on Food.

I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society / Higher Education Academy and a member of the conseil scientifique of the European Institute for the History and Cultures of Food.Link opens in a new window Together with Prof. Brian Cowan at McGill, I co-edit Bloomsbury's 'Cultures of Early Modern EuropeLink opens in a new window' series (see flyer in margin) and serve on the boards of the journals Food & History and Brewery History Link opens in a new windowas well as Adam Matthew's Food and Drink in History. Involvement in other scholarly bodies includes the Warwick Network for Parish Research (as My-Parish co-ordinator), Drinking Studies NetworkLink opens in a new window (co-founder), German History SocietyLink opens in a new window (committee member 2005-8), Warwickshire Local History SocietyLink opens in a new window (committee member 2012-19) and the Microhistory NetworkLink opens in a new window. In Switzerland, I was appointed a federal expert for heritage and helped to assess (post-)doctoral scholarship applications submitted to the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Privately, I follow the changing fortunes of several footie teamsLink opens in a new window and keenly explore all aspects of Italian gastronomy. Together with my family I enjoy travelling and skiing in the Alps.

 

Undergraduate Teaching

At Warwick, I have convened / contributed to three core modules ...

• Making History / The Historian's Toolkit (Year 1)
• The European World (Year 2) & Europe in the Making (Year 1; both using our Routledge textbook)

... and directed two options:

• Reformation, Politics & Rebellion in 16thC Germany (Year 2; reflected in video lectures and podcastLink opens in a new window resources)
• The World of the Tavern in Early Modern Europe (drawing on the Public DrinkingLink opens in a new window source edition)

Elsewhere, I have taught UG modules on popular religion, Reformation change and drinking cultures at Bern, Bielefeld, Cambridge & Konstanz. In 2023, I co-hosted a Eutopia summer school on the history of violence (Dresden, tweets).

 

Postgraduate Training

I teach on our MA in Early Modern History and - as Director of PG Research - run the Graduate Research Forum and contribute to related university events. Further afield, I taught a masters option at Bielefeld / Germany in 2011, lectured for CEU and co-directed five annual Summer UniversitiesLink opens in a new window of the European Institute for the History and Cultures of Food at Tours / France (2014-18). External examining experience includes PhD / DPhil / MA by Research theses at Birmingham, Brussels, Dresden, Gloucestershire, Hull, Oxford, St Andrews, Trinity College Dublin, UCL, Vienna and postgraduate taught programmes at AberdeenLink opens in a new window, Cambridge, OxfordLink opens in a new window and York.

I always welcome proposals for PhD / MA research projects in any field of early modern European history, particularly those relating to the social, religious & cultural history of local communities. Current research students include:

• Angus Crawford, 'Almshouse, Guild, and Town Community: The Lord Leycester Hospital in its Urban Setting, c. 1571-1700' (with Naomi Pullin & Angela Nicholls; profile)
• Kristi Flake, 'The Impact of the Book of Homilies on the English Reformation and the Development of English Protestantism 1547-1714' (with Mark Knights & Peter Marshall; profile)
• Daniel Gettings, 'Sustaining Body and Soul: The English People and their Water c. 1550-1750' (profile)
• Serin Quinn, 'Love and Gold: A Comparative History of the Tomato in Britain and Italy, 1500-1900' (with Rebecca Earle; profile)

 
Completed PhD / MA by Research projects:

• James Brown, 'The Landscape of Drink: Inns, Taverns and Alehouses in Early Modern SouthamptonLink opens in a new window' (PhD University of Warwick, 2008; e-portfolioLink opens in a new window), now a Research Associate at Sheffield
• Joe Chick, 'Cloisters and Clothiers: The Social Impact of Reading's Transition from Monastic Lordship to Self-Governance, 1350-1600' (PhD University of Warwick, 2020; e-portfolioLink opens in a new window; thesis monograph; new research)
• Paula McBride, 'Magic and Witchcraft in the Early Modern English Midlands' (MA by Research, 2014, profile)
• John E. Morgan, 'Flooding in early modern England: Cultures of coping in Gloucestershire and Lincolnshire' (PhD University of Warwick, 2016), now a Lecturer in Historical Geography at Bristol
• Angela Nicholls, 'Early Modern English Almshouses in the Mixed Economy of Welfare c.1550-1725 Link opens in a new window' (PhD University of Warwick, 2014; with Steve Hindle; e-portfolioLink opens in a new window), now an Associate Fellow of the Department
• Maria Tauber, 'The Making of English Politicians: Early Modern MPs and the Transformation of the Media System' (PhD University of Warwick, 2024; with Mark Knights; e-portfolio)

 

 

The 'Alte Wirt', a sixteenth-century inn at Obermenzing near Munich. Source.

 

Research Interests

My field is the cultural history of German-speaking Europe and England (c. 1400-1800). In particular, I work on political/religious/social life, food/drink consumption & memory in local communities over the early modern period.

Principal research themes include:

1. Local memory and trans-generational communication: a Gerda Henkel Foundation funded project on depositions of chronicles & objects into tower capsules placed on top of buildings across the German lands since the Middle Ages (Cambridge / Brussels / Frankfurt lectures, overview article, websites in English / German, video series).
2. Parish communities in the 'long' Reformation: see books like The Shaping of a CommunityLink opens in a new window; The Parish in English LifeLink opens in a new window; Landgemeinde und KircheLink opens in a new window; The Communal Age in Western Europe c. 1100-1800, Pfarreien in der VormoderneLink opens in a new window, contributions to the English Parish Church & advising on Warwickshire Parish Accounts
3. Food, drink & social exchange: reflected in my roles in Warwick's Food GRP & the 'Social Sites' network; books like The World of the TavernLink opens in a new window, Drinking MattersLink opens in a new window, Brewing CulturesLink opens in a new window, A Cultural History of Food in the Early Modern AgeLink opens in a new window; the source collection Public Drinking in the Early Modern WorldLink opens in a new window; and a video on church ales.
4. Rural self-government in the Holy Roman Empire: a Fellowship at the Alfried Krupp WissenschaftskollegLink opens in a new window in Greifswald led to lectures / publications on imperial villages & parish republics (esp. Gersau & Dithmarschen).
    

Collaborative ventures help to set these topics in a wider interdisciplinary framework:

• Migration-related research with 2020-22 IAS Fernandes Fellow Dr Marjolein Schepers and 2022-25 Leverhulme Early Career Fellow Dr Tom Pert at the Renaissance Centre;
• Acting as Advisory Board member for Prof. Felicita TramontanaLink opens in a new window's HOLYLAB ERC project at Roma Tre, following her Marie Skłodowska-Curie MIGMEDLink opens in a new window fellowship on migration at the Renaissance Centre (2016-18; report) & joining the Scientific Committee of the ERC project ALPINNKONNECT at the University of Vienna (2025-)
• The 'Warwick Network for Parish Research', with the associated community platform 'My-ParishLink opens in a new window' and the annual 'Warwick Symposium on Parish Research', alongside the Microhistory NetworkLink opens in a new window;
• The Warwick-founded 'Drinking Studies NetworkLink opens in a new window', which facilitates workshops, an annual symposium and new research initiatives (I co-directed its 'Understanding ExcessLink opens in a new window' cluster and sit on the advisory board);
• The 2018-19 Humanities Research Centre Workshop series on the theme of PASSIONLink opens in a new window.

 

 

Public Engagement

My research on food, drink, local memory and popular culture offers good outreach opportunities. Examples include helping actress Marta Dusseldorp exploring her Swiss (innkeeping) ancestry for the Australian 'Who do you think you are?' series & participating in a TV debate on the fall of the Berlin wall. Reflections on the drinking problem appeared in national newspapers The GuardianLink opens in a new window & The TimesLink opens in a new window plus the online platform The ConversationLink opens in a new window, while tower capsules featured in the German Spiegel magazine, Swiss daily Tages Anzeiger and on Austrian TV. Radio interviews have focused on the impact of Brexit (Austrian ORF), shifts in drinking culture, what we can find on top of towers in the German lands (Swiss SRF 2 Kultur) and English Easter customs (Swiss SRF1 Treffpunkt):

Interpreting drinking statistics for The Voice of RussiaLink opens in a new window UK

Exploring the contents & meanings of tower capsules for German station SWR2

I regularly support local history initiatives here & abroad. In Switzerland, I helped to celebrate the micro-republic of Gersau (see DVD recordingLink opens in a new window of my address to the Landsgemeinde and the public debate on political 'freedom' in 2014); in Warwickshire, I have appeared the 'Warwick Words' History Festival (2017/24), co-hosted a workshop on parish records at the Lord Leycester Hospital (2024) and addressed several History Societies in the county.

In other activities, I produced several learning resources, wrote for A-level audiences, discussed the 'Renaissance from BelowLink opens in a new window', directed the FEAST! theme for Coventry UK City of Culture, took over the Twitter account of the Ecclesiastical History Society and participated in a public round table events on 'parishes & migration' and 'The Future of Hospitality'.

More detailed information appears on my 'public engagementLink opens in a new window' and media work pages.

Selected Publications

 
A full list appears here
 
a) Books / edited collections

 
 

C. Scott Dixon & Beat Kümin (eds),

Interpreting Early Modern Europe
(London: Routledge, 2019)

Contents & information / 20% Discount Flyer - as hardcopy/paperback/e-book, featuring surveys on the historiography of key themes in the period, with extracts from primary sources & secondary works. Reviews 1, 2 + 3

 

 

 

Beat Kümin,

Imperial Villages: Cultures of Political Freedom in the German Lands c. 1300-1800
Studies in Central European Histories Volume 65
(Leiden: Brill Publishing, 2019)

Contents & Formats, Book Flyer App. 1: Villages App. 2: Officeholders Reviews 1, 2 + 3 Rezensionen 1 + 2

 

 

 

 

Beat Kümin,
The Shaping of a Community: The Rise & Reformation of the English Parish c. 1400-1560
St Andrews Studies in Reformation History
(Aldershot and Brookfield/Vermont: Scolar Press, 1996)
[reviewLink opens in a new window]

Now available from RoutledgeLink opens in a new window

 

 

 

 
Beat Kümin,
Drinking Matters: Public Houses and Social Exchange in Early Modern Central Europe
Early Modern History: Society and Culture
(Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)

Content and availability; Reviews: 1 / 2Link opens in a new window
Link opens in a new window

See also the WARWICK PODCASTLink opens in a new window series on aspects of the book.

 

Beat Kümin (ed.),
A Cultural History of Food in the Early Modern Age
(Oxford: Berg, 2012) & now also accessible digitally on the Bloomsbury Cultural History platform
[= Vol. 4 of the six-part series A Cultural History of Food, gen. eds. F. Parasecoli & P. Scholliers]

Publisher Information (Volume HBLink opens in a new window, Volume PBLink opens in a new window / SeriesLink opens in a new window) DustjacketLink opens in a new window IntroductionLink opens in a new window

 

 

 

Beat Kümin,
The Communal Age in Western Europe c. 1100-1800: Towns, Villages and Parishes in Pre-Modern Society
Studies in European History
(Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)

Publisher Information ReviewLink opens in a new window

 

 

 

 

Beat Kümin (ed.),
The European World 1500-1800: An Introduction to Early Modern History (London: Routledge, 2009;
enlarged 2nd & 3rd edns, 2014 & 2018; 4th edn 2023 flyer - see what's new in these videos!)

Contents & Availability; Companion Website (with interactive map, image gallery, timeline, glossary & weblinks);
Editor ProfileLink opens in a new window; reviews of the first edn in EnglishLink opens in a new window, GermanLink opens in a new window and HungarianLink opens in a new window; 2nd edn website

 

 

 

 
B. Kümin (ed.),
Politische Freiheit und republikanische Kultur im Alten Europa. Historische Essays zum Gedenkjahr "Gersau 2014"
[Political Freedom and Republican Culture in Old Europe. Historical Essays for the Bicentary "Gersau 2014"]
(Vitznau: Bucher Druckmedien, 2015) [includes Kümin, 'Vom Reichsdorf zur Republic: Grundlagen und Entwicklung der politischen Freiheit in Gersau', 93-8]

Available for CHF 19.50 at Bezirkskanzlei Gersau
Open Access to Full TextLink opens in a new window

 

 

Michele Ferrari and Beat Kümin (eds),
Pfarreien in der Vormoderne: Identität und Kultur im Niederkirchenwesen EuropasLink opens in a new window [Pre-modern Parishes: Identity and Culture in Local Ecclesiastical Life], Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 146
(Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2017) [includes regional / thematic essays in four languages plus M. Ferrari & B. Kümin, ’Einführung – Pfarreien in der Vormoderne’, 9-22] [pre-print versionLink opens in a new window; publication / ordering flyerLink opens in a new window; Rezension 1; Rezension 2; Rezension 3; Review 4]

 

 

 

 
b) Articles and essays

• B. Kümin, ‘Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire [Review Essay]’, in: German History 27 (2009), 131-44
• B. Kümin, 'Iconographical approaches to the early modern public houseLink opens in a new window', Food & History 7 (2/2009), pp. 29-42
• B. Kümin and Cornelie Usborne, 'At home and in the workplace: A historical introduction to the spatial turn', in: History & Theory 52 (2013), 305-16 [introduction to a FORUM collection on 'Domestic and Occupational Space in Western Europe from the Middle Ages']
• B. Kümin, 'Kirchgenossen an der Macht. Vormoderne politische Kultur in den "Pfarreirepubliken" von Gersau und Dithmarschen [Parishioners in Power: Premodern political culture in the "parish republics" of Gersau and Dithmarschen]', in: Zeitschrift für historische Forschung 41 (2/2014), 187-230 [abstract]
• B. Kümin, 'Rural autonomy and popular politics in imperial villages', in: German History 33 (2/2015), 194-213 [abstractLink opens in a new window] [original versionLink opens in a new window]
• B. Kümin, 'Parish churches in the early modern world: An afterword', in: Andrew Spicer (ed.), Parish Churches in the Early Modern World (Farnham: Ashgate, 2016), 385-391 [book detailsLink opens in a new window] [pre-print versionLink opens in a new window]
• B. Kümin, 'Rural Society', in: Ulinka Rublack (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Protestant Reformations (Oxford: University Press, 2016), chapter 25, pp. 525-45 [abstract / online publicationLink opens in a new window] [print versionLink opens in a new window] [paperback edn]
• B. Kümin, ‘Parish religion in late medieval and Reformation England: The evidence from churchwardens’ accounts’, in: Andrea Tilatti and Roberto Alloro (eds), Redde rationem: Contabilità parrocchiali tra medioevo e prima età moderna, Quaderni di Storia Religiosa XXI (Caselle di Sommacampagna: Cierre edizioni, 2016), 231-248 [Series homepageLink opens in a new window / abstract]
• B. Kümin, 'Gersau, Innerschweiz und Europa : Kirchenmodelle im Zeitalter der Reformationen [Gersau, Central Switzerland and Europe: Church Models in the Age of Reformations]', in: Der Geschichtsfreund: Mitteilungen des Historischen Vereins der Fünf Orte Luzern, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden ob dem Wald und nid dem Wald und Zug 171 (2018), 9-20 [online access]
• B. Kümin and Felicita Tramontana, 'Catholicism decentralized: Local religion in the early modern periphery', in: Church History 89 (2/2020), 268-287 [free to share versionLink opens in a new window]
• B. Kümin, 'Wirtshäuser auf dem Prüfstand: Zur sozialen Ambivalenz öffentlicher Trinkkulturen in der Frühen Neuzeit [Testing Taverns: On the Social Ambivalence of Public Drinking in Early Modern Europe]', in: Historische Anthropologie 28 (2/2020), 229-49 [accepted version]
• B. Kümin, 'Food and Drink in Early Modern Europe', in: Food and Drink in History (Adam Matthew Digital, 2020)
• B. Kümin, 'Cultural Representations', in: B. Ann Tlusty (ed.), Alcohol in the Early Modern World: A Cultural History (London: Bloomsbury, 2021), 159-177 [review1] [review 2]
• Dorota Dias-Lewandowska, Laura Fenton, Sam Goodman & Beat Kümin, ‘Altered states: Changing conditions of excess in European drinking cultures’, in: G. Hunt, T. Antin & V. Asmussen Frank (eds), Routledge Handbook of Intoxicants and Intoxication (London: Routledge, 2022), 501-22 [hardcopy + e-book info] [abstract]
• Rebecca Earle & B. Kümin, 'Food and Drink Cultures', in: B. Kümin (ed.), The European World 1500-1800: An Introduction to Early Modern History (London: Routledge, 2023), 289-300 [publisher info]
• Beat Kümin, 'Parish churches', in: The Digital Encyclopedia of British Sociability in the Long Eighteenth Century [online], ISSN 2803-2845, URL: https://www.digitens.org/en/notices/parish-churches.html (accessed 07/12/2022) & 'Vestries', ibid., URL: https://www.digitens.org/en/notices/vestries.html (accessed 23/1/2023)
• Beat Kümin, 'Tower Ball Deposits and Urban Space in the German Lands', in: Religion and Urbanity Online, edited by Susanne Rau & Jörg Rüpke (Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 1/2023) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/urbrel.22603017Link opens in a new window
• Beat Kümin, 'Epilogue', in: Maria Amélia Campos (ed.), Essays on Lay and Ecclesiastical Communities in and Around the Medieval Urban Parish, Investigação (Coimbra: Universidade de Coimbra, 2024), 315-22
• Beat Kümin, 'Beyond the Town Hall: Sites of Political Representation in Early Modern Europe', in: Cédric Brélaz, Thomas Lau, Hans-Joachim Schmidt & Siegfried Weichlein (eds), Patterns in the History of Polycentric Governance in European Cities: From Antiquity to the 21st Century (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2024), 153-67 [open access] [Book Information]

FEATURED

Beat Kümin, 'Nachrichten für die Nachwelt. Turmkugelarchive in der Erinnerungskultur des deutschsprachigen Europa [Messages for Posterity: Tower Ball Archives in the Memory Culture of German-Speaking Europe], in: Historische Zeitschrift 312 (3/2021), 614-648 [Open Access, with German & English abstracts]

Beat Kümin, 'The Peasants and the Empire', in: History Today 75 (3/2025), 28-39 [feature article commissioned for the quincentenary of the German Peasants' War: online / pre-print versions]

Beat Kümin, 'Das Wirtshaus als sozialer Ort [The Public House as a Social Site]', in: Südtiroler Landesmuseum für Volkskunde (ed.), gewisper - gerüchte - geschreÿ: Wirtshaus und Bauernkrieg 1525, Beiträge zur Volkskunde 5 (Dietenheim, 2025), 110-125 [near-final pdf VersionLink opens in a new window]

 

 

Researching the contents of tower capsules at St Johannis, Rosdorf (Lower Saxony / Germany),
which include a 1749 chronicle written by pastor Friedrich Wilhelm Leschen, with current parishioners.
Picture credits: Jan Stubenitzky (left), Harald Lisson (middle) and BK.

 

 

Professor Beat Kümin

Early Modern European History

Director of PG Research

Room: FAB, 3.49
Office Hours (during term):
Thu 15-16 & Fri 10.15-11.15
(please book a time here)

Department of History
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL, U.K.
T: +44 (0)2476 524915
F: +44 (0)2476 523437
E-mail Link opens in a new window 

 

 

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Dresden-Warwick Summer School on the History of Violence (July 2023).

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

'Food & Drink Studies':
International Postgraduate
Summer University (Tours)
homepageLink opens in a new window / media coverageLink opens in a new window /
student reportLink opens in a new window on 2018

 

 

Joint Workshops for early modern PGR students at TU Dresden & Warwick have taken place in 2016 (Dresden) & 2021 (online)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Video Intro to our Food GRP

 

Information

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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See what's going on at My-ParishLink opens in a new window

Discussing the 'Passion' workshop series run in 2018-19.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Marta Dusseldorp at the Bear inn (Ins/Bern) in November 2018.

 
'The Renaissance from Below'?

Download

 

Debating the 'Future of Hospitality' at the Resonate Festival (April 2022)

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 
 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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