Institute of History

Titleimage: Institute of History

Welcome to the Institute of History at the University of Bern. Here we research and teach the study of history in all its thematic breadth and methodological diversity. Our research deals with the history of Europe from antiquity to the present, as well as with the history of regions outside of Europe.

Special focal points are the history of Latin America, Eastern European history as well as environmental and climate history. Our institute is the only one in German-speaking Switzerland with its own department of Swiss history, which deals with our country's past from the Middle Ages to the 21st century.

News

Handover of the Management

Silvia Berger Ziauddin becomes Managing Director of the Institute of History

At this year's Christmas aperitif of the Institute History of the University of Bern, Joachim Eibach handed over the management of the institute to Silvia Berger Ziauddin, who will take up the post in 2025.
Many thanks to Joachim Eibach for his work and a successful start to the new director Silvia Berger Ziauddin!

SNSF grants

Sibylle Marti receives an SNSF Starting Grant

Dr Sibylle Marti, Ambizione Fellow at the Institute of History, has been awarded an SNSF Starting Grant for her research project ‘Women's Global 1990s: Networks, Activism, and Politics’. She will carry out her project with funding of CHF 1,771,806 from 1 January 2026 in the Department of Modern and Contemporary History at the Institute of History.

Awards for dissertations

Institute Prize for Lukas Heinzmann and Julien Grand

Julien Grand (La fleur de lys gravée dans le coeur’ Les Besenval entre Soleure, Alsace et service de France) and Lukas Heinzmann (Beten, Beobachten, Berichten. Textgenetische und klimageschichtliche Auswertung des Einsiedler Kloster-Tagebuchs von Pater Joseph Dietrich, 1670-1704) were honoured with this year's Institute Prize of the Institute of History.
Congratulations!

Open Access

Remixing the Hip-Hop Narrative

Between Local Expressions and Global Connections
by James Barber / Christian Büschges / Dianne Violeta Mausfeld / Britta Sweers (eds.) | transcript | September 2024