Welcome Christiane Hoth

Christiane Hoth de Olano is a historian specializing in Latin American and Caribbean history with expertise in environmental history, the history of knowledge and science. Since June 1, 2026, she has been a Research Fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C. Prior to her stay in Washington, she has been affiliated with the Centre for Empire Studies (CES) at the University of Münster. From June to August 2026, the CES is delighted to welcome her as a visiting scholar. She received her Ph.D. from KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in 2024 and has held academic appointments at the University of Bern and UniDistance Suisse in Brig, Switzerland.
Her research examines the production of knowledge in frontier contexts, with particular attention to the long nineteenth century. She has published on missionary encounters, exhibitions and collections, drawing on approaches from material culture studies and the history of photography. She is also interested in community knowledge and engagement-oriented history, especially in connecting academic research with teaching and public engagement in higher education.
At CES, her current postdoctoral project explores the environmental history of water in the imperial contexts of the Caribbean during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.