Maria Tauber
About Me
I am a PhD student at the Department of History, funded by the Wolfson Foundation. My research project entitled ‘The Making of English Politicians - Early Modern MPs and the Transformation of the Media System’ is supervised by Professor Beat Kümin and Professor Mark Knights.
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 touching on the structures of Early Modern society and scholarly attempts to understand the functions of their constitutive elements. In my MA thesis I 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 the transformation of the media system.
Germany in the Age of Reformation (HI242)
I am currently teaching on the module Germany in the Age of Reformation. My office hours are Thursdays from 1pm- 2pm and will be held via Microsoft Teams. To make a booking please use You can book me and I will send you a Microsoft Teams invitation. If you think you will need more than 15 minutes please book 2 slots.
Research
PhD: My research investigates the impact of media change in early modern English society (c. 1570-1790) by analysing its impact on the political process. It investigates the long-term implications of political agents becoming exposed to the public eye, asking for the MP’s role within a new social and multi-media setting, their reflections, their changing perception of office and the strategies used by them. Did the circulation of new forms of manuscript and print media and the authors’/readers’ influence transform the way in which MPs in England went about their political business? And how long did any such transformation take?
MA thesis: “Self-Accusation”? Communication Processes in a German Witch-trial (1669)
Research Interests
Cultural, Media, and Social History
History of Ideas
Historical anthropology
British History between 1500 and 1800
Academic Profile
2019 - present: PhD student at Warwick University
2019: Research and Teaching Assistant, Chair of Early Modern History (Prof. Dr. Rudolf Schlögl), Department of History and Sociology, University of Konstanz
2016 - 2018: Student assistant, Chair of Early Modern History (Prof. Dr. Rudolf Schlögl), Department of History and Sociology, University of Konstanz
2015 - 2016: Student 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 - present: Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship
2018: Veuk-Award for the best degree (MA History)
Publications
- «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), 137-143.
- «Denkmal des Pferdes Meteor, 1959. In Stein gemeißelte agency», ibid., 201-205.
- «Elefantengehege New York, 1931/34. (Re-)Präsentationen», ibid., 121-126.
- «Staatsarchiv Zürich: Bestialitätsakte, 1682. Sexualität mit Tieren vor Gericht», ibid., 23-28.
Conferences
- ‘“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.
- 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’.
