Maria Tauber
About Me
My research project titled ‘The Making of English Politicians - Early Modern MPs and the Transformation of the Media Landscape, c. 1640-1800’ was supervised by Professor Beat Kümin and Professor Mark Knights and funded by the Wolfson Foundation.
I have completed my BA in History and English at the Universities of Kiel and Aberdeen and a History MA at the University of Constance. I am interested in a variety of topics relating to the structures of Early Modern society and scholarly attempts to understand the functions of its constitutive elements. Previously, I have worked on communicational processes in so-called self-accusations within early modern witch-trials. My PhD continues to focus on a communication and media approach while shifting the subject matter to Early Modern English politicians and political culture.
Research
My PhD investigates the impact of media change in 17th and 18th century England with a focus on political communication and Members of Parliament. It examines the long-term implications of political agents becoming exposed to the public eye, asking for the MP’s (and their team's) role within a new social and complex multi-media setting, their reflections, their changing perception of office and the strategies employed by them and those they engaged with. The underlying media approach focuses on communication and challenges to successful communication on different levels, including the parish, the constituency and the national.
Research Interests
Cultural, Media, and Social History
History of Communication
British History in the Long Eighteenth Century
Gender and Female Political Culture
Academic Profile
2019 - 2023: PhD student at Warwick University
2020/2021: Senior Graduate Teaching Assistant, Warwick University
2019: Research and Teaching Associate, Chair of Early Modern History (Prof. Dr. Rudolf Schlögl), Department of History and Sociology, University of Konstanz
2016 - 2018: Student Research Assistant, Chair of Early Modern History (Prof. Dr. Rudolf Schlögl), Department of History and Sociology, University of Konstanz
2015 - 2016: Student Research Assistant, Social Science Archive Konstanz, University of Konstanz
2015 - 2018 University of Konstanz, MA History
2011 - 2015: University of Kiel/ University of Aberdeen, BA History/ English and North American Studies
Scholarships and Awards
2019 - 2022: Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship
2018: Veuk-Award for the best MA History degree
Publications
- «Negotiating the ‘Sense of the County’: Newspaper Interventions in the 1747 Middlesex Election», in: Matthew Grenby, Elaine Chalus, Kendra Packham (eds), Electoral Culture, Political Media and Popular Participation in England 1715-1832 (Woodbridge, forthcoming).
- «English MPs: Legislators and Servants of their Constituents, 1750-1800. By Michael McCahill. London: Bloomsbury. 2023. xi, 271 pp. £85.00. hbk. ISBN 9781350332270», Parliamentary History 43/2 (2024), pp. 259-61.
- «Die 'Selbstbezichtigung' eines Detmolder Zauberjungen. Ein Hexenprozess des 17. Jahrhunderts aus kommunikationszentrierter Perspektive (The 'Self-accusation' of a Detmold Boy Wizard. A Communication-Centred Approach to a 17th Century Witch Trial)», Jahrbuch für Kommunikationsgeschichte 25 (2023), 36-65.
- «Das Einhorn/ Der Narwal, 1684. Nicht Fisch, nicht Fleisch», in: Kugler, Lena/ Aline Steinbrecher/ Clemens Wischermann (eds), Tiere und Geschichte. Band 2. Literarische und historische Quellen einer Animate History, (Stuttgart, 2017), 137-43.
- «Denkmal des Pferdes Meteor, 1959. In Stein gemeißelte agency», ibid., 201-05.
- «Elefantengehege New York, 1931/34. (Re-)Präsentationen», ibid., 121-26.
- «Staatsarchiv Zürich: Bestialitätsakte, 1682. Sexualität mit Tieren vor Gericht», ibid., 23-28.
Conferences & Papers
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'Serving Friends, Patrons and the Constituency – Information Management and News Networks in 1710 Chester and Parliament', Reconsidering the Legacy of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, 1724-2024, British Library, 11 April 2024.
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'“Allow[…] yourself some time to be easy and cheerful among your friends and enemies” – local political sociability in national politics', Sociability in Politics, Food and Travel in the Early Modern Era Conference, University of Warwick, 8-10 June 2023.
- 'MPs and Political Communication in the Eighteenth Century', Parliament, Politics and People Seminar, IHR, 14 March 2022.
- 'Negotiating the "Sense of the County" - Newspaper Interventions in the 1747 Middlesex Election', Eighteenth-Century Political Participation & Electoral Culture Conference, Newcastle University, 7-9 July 2022.
- 'Early Modern MP's Wives and the Transformation of the Media System', Forschungskolloquium Frühe Neuzeit, Universität Münster, Germany, 20 April 2022.
- 'The MP's Wife. Observations from Somerset around 1700', Birmingham Eighteenth-Century Centre, University of Birmingham, 30 March 2022.
- 'Contested Seats, Contested Messages - Approaching 18th Century Parliamentary Constituencies from a Media Perspective', Forschungskolloquium Neuere Geschichte und Mediävistik, Universität Konstanz, Germany, 2 November 2021.
- ‘“For I did not care to be a farmer’s Wife” – Managing the Role of MP’s Wife in late 17th century England’, History Postgraduate Conference, University of Warwick, 27 May 2021.
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‘Mary Clarke’s “Parliament of women” – Representing the MP in the Parish’, Nineteenth Warwick Parish Symposium: Parish, Power & Politics, 8 May 2021.
- ‘Contested Seats, Contested Messages – Challenging and Negotiating Order through Printed Election Addresses in 1747 Middlesex’, Media and Public (Dis)order - A virtual workshop for early modernists at Dresden & Warwick, 30 March 2021.
Conference organisation:
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With Benjamin Seebröker & Jan Siegemund: 'Media and Public (Dis)order. A virtual workshop for early modernists at Dresden & Warwick', Monday & Tuesday 29-30 March 2021.
- Co-organisation of the 'Warwick Symposium on Parish Research': 'Remembering the Parish'Link opens in a new window (Nov 2020) - see symposium reportLink opens in a new window for H/SOZ/KULT (17/12/20), 'Parish, Power, and Politics'Link opens in a new window (May 2021), 'Writing the Parish'Link opens in a new window (May 2022), 'Parish and PerformanceLink opens in a new window' (May 2023).
Teaching
2020/2021 Seminar tutor on the module Germany in the Age of Reformation (HI242), Warwick University.
2019 Covened and taught seminars on Media and the English Civil War (BA and MA) and Early Modern Witch Trials (BA students) at Konstanz University.
Public Engagement
- 'Sir Roger Newdigate (1719-1806), MP and Warwickshire Gentleman', Warwickshire Local History Society, April Lecture, 26 April 2022.
- Warwick History PG Podcast, May-August 2020: Contributor Episode: 'Printed Identities in the Early Modern English Parliament and America's Antebellum South' with Adam Challoner; Hosted Episodes: Sophie Hobbs, Bobby Tam, ‘Communal Commemoration and Emotion’ & Hannah Straw, David Fletcher, ‘Enthusiastical or Fanatical Atheists - The Court Wits and Religious Identity’.
