Book Presentation "The Spanish Empire" - English Language
On Monday, 26 October, Sarah Albiez-Wieck, Raquel Gil Montero, and Xosé M. Núñez-Seixas will introduce their new book "The Spanish Empire. A Global History, 1478-1975" to the public.
The event will take place at 5 pm at Käte Hamburger Kolleg, Servatiiplatz 9, in Münster.
Round Table at the Münster Doctoral School of History
Tuesday, 10 November 2026, 6-8pm, JO 101 (Johannisstr. 4)
With Muriel Moser-Gerber, Ulla Kypta, Sarah Albiez-Wieck, Malte Thiessen and Holger Thünemann.
Chair: Katharina Isaak
New DFG project 2027-2030
Sarah Albiez-Wieck obtained a grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG) for a three-year project titled „Mestizo as a Transimperial Categorization in the Early Modern Greater Caribbean and Mexico City “.
Two job postings for doctoral candidates (research associates) will be pubished shortly.
PhD student Ignacio Helmke secures external funding for project
As part of the British Library’s Endangered Archives Project, our PhD student Ignacio Helmke has secured funding of 20,800 British pounds for his project "Photographs and Archives of the Anglican Mission among the Mapuche, Chile (1896–1940)". You can find out more about the project on the project website at https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP1878.
Wir gratulieren zum Gleichstellungspreis für das SUN Office Network
Das SUN-Netzwerk hat den Gleichstellungspreis 2025 für das Projekt "Administrative Professionals Day" beim Neujahrsempfang 2026 verliehen bekommen. Den Preis haben Daniela Bornträger, Maria Kock und Maren Thölking als Projektverantwortliche stellvertretend für das Netzwerk entgegengenommen.
Das SUN-Netzwerk möchte das Preisgeld nutzen, um mit dem stereotypischen, oft abwertenden Bild von der Rolle der Sekretärin aufzuräumen und das Selbstwertgefühl der Mitarbeitenden in den Sekretariaten und Geschäftszimmern an der Uni Münster zu stärken. Nur so kann eine differenzierte, moderne Darstellung der Mitarbeitenden als starke, selbstbewusste Fachkräfte entstehen, welches wiederum die Attraktivität des Berufes stärkt.
Alle können sich schon auf einen interessanten Administrative Professionals Day 2027 freuen.
Conference for doctoral students in Latin American history
On 12–13 March 2026, Prof. Dr. Sarah Albiez-Wieck's chair will host a conference for doctoral students in Latin American history at the University of Münster. If you have any questions, please contact our research associate Arno Holl
For more information, please refer to the program.
Save-the-Date: CES Workshop "Imperial frontiers. Global and local entanglements" in 2026
On 9 and 10 February 2026, the Centre for Empire Studies will host a workshop on imperial frontiers, both sharing and acknowledging the expertise of its current fellows Hayley Roy and Mario Graña Taborelli as well as other local and international researchers. Please refer to the flyer for information on the workshop program.
Talk by Arno Holl on 2 June 2025: "'Die Mutter des Wassers ist fortgezogen'. Die peruanischen Kukama zwischen Spiritualität und staatlichem Raubbau"
Workshop Mestiz@ as a Transimperial Category (12.2.2025)
Funding for Exhibition in Münster's City Museum
The joint exhibition project "Colonialism" led by Prof. Dr. Sarah Albiez-Wieck and Dr. Johannes Jansen (Institute of History Didactics) in cooperation with Dr. Barbara Rommé (Stadtmuseum Münster) received funding from the "Cultural Funds" program of Münster University as well as from the program "Leuchtturmprojekte" of the "Universitätsgesellschaft". The exhibition opening will take place on 22 August 2025 in the Münster City Museum. Numerous students were and are currently working on the exhibition project.
Inaugural Lecture on 12 October
On 12 October 2023, Prof. Dr. Sarah Albiez-Wieck celebrated her tenured professorship at Münster University, which she has been holding since October 2022, with an inaugural lecture on "Travelling in 17th century America". Please refer to the full article and the video of the lecture on the department homepage for further information.
On 30 May 2023, Prof. Dr. Sarah Albiez-Wieck gave a presentation on "Fiscalidad y 'calidad social' en los Virreinatos del Perú, de Nueva España y en Filipinas entre los siglos XVI y XIX" at the Unversidad Nacional de Cuyo. The presentation took place in the context of her research stay at the Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales (INCIHUSA, CONICET).
Habilitation Thesis Published
In October 2022, Sarah Albiez-Wieck's Habilitation thesis was published by Brill:
Albiez-Wieck, Sarah (2022): Taxing Difference in Peru and New Spain 16th-19th Century. Negotiating Social Differences and Belonging. Leiden, Boston: Brill (European expansion and indigenous response, 40). Partly available in open acces at: https://brill.com/view/title/34680
Summary: This book addresses the negotiation of categorizations in colonial societies in Spanish America from a new vantage point: fiscality. In early modern empires (poll) taxes were a significant factor to organize and perpetuate social inequalities. By this, fiscal categorizations had very concrete effects on the daily life of the categorized, on their assets and on their labor force. They intersected with social categorizations such as gender, profession, age and what many authors have termed race or ethnicity, but which is denominated here, more accurately with a term from the sources, calidad. They were imposed by legislation from above and contested via petitions from below, the latter being a type of source scarcely analyzed until now.