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 its 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.
Research
PhD: My research investigates the impact of media change in 17th and 18th century England on the politician. It examines 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 employed by them. The underlying media approach focuses on communication and communicative challenges on different levels, including the parish, the constituency and the national.
MA thesis: “Self-Accusation”? Communication Processes in a German Witch-trial (1669)
Research Interests
Cultural, Media, and Social History
History of Communication
Historical anthropology
British History between 1500 and 1800
Gender and female political culture/ electoral engagement
Academic Profile
2019 - present: PhD student at Warwick University
2020/2021: Senior Graduate Teaching Assistant on the module Germany in the Age of Reformation (HI242).
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 & Papers
- '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.
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’.
