Dr. Sebastian Haumann

Hidden City Philadelphia

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:23:09 +0100

Discovered a great website: Hidden City Philadelphia.

I am fascinated by the explorations of the legacies of the “failures” of urban development. Maybe there is something to learn from it, or to spark some ideas for the future. Besides, Philadelphia is just an interesting place to explore.

Conference on Industrial Disasters

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:24:18 +0100

Conference on Industrial Disasters:

The program for the conference “Wahrnehmung, Kommunikation und Bewaeltigung industrieller Katastrophen vom 18. bis zum 21. Jahrhundert. Bergbau - Chemieindustrie - Kernenergie” in Konstanz has been published. I will contribute a presentation on the strategies and policies that prevented disasters in the lime mining industry.

Conference Report on GSU Nachwuchstagung

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:16:39 +0100

My conference report on the young researchers’ conference of the Gesellschaft für Stadtgeschichte und Urbanisierungsforschung has just been published in the latest issue of the Informationen zur modernen Stadtgeschichte.

Tagungsbericht: GSU-Nachwuchstagung und Workshop „Stadt und Moderne“, Darmstadt (22.-23.9.2011), in: Informationen zur modernen Stadtgeschichte 2011/2, 105-107.

“Lime-land”, Wuppertal-Dornap

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:10:09 +0100

“Lime-land”, Wuppertal-Dornap

Förderinitiative Interdisziplinäre Forschung

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:18:42 +0100

Submitted a proposal for the Förderinitiative Interdisziplinäre Forschung at TU Darmstadt together with Maren Harnack, Mario Tvrtković and Tobias Wolf. The proposal is now off and on its way. If we succeed we will receive a nice little grant to explore processes and chances of identification with the built environment of large scale housing estates of the 1960s and 1970s.

Article for SGWSG Jahrbuch

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:58:00 +0100

Working on a contribution to the 2013 Volume of the Schweizerisches Jahrbuch für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte. The article is based on a presentation I gave in Bern last May at a conference on “habitation”. The article on citizens’ initiatives’ strategies for low income housing is going to be along the lines of the presentation, with some considerable amendments relating to the prevailing market conditions. This point was stressed in the discussion following the presentation and I am thankful for the suggestions.

Conference Report "Industrialisation in European Regions"

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:23:36 +0100

Conference Report "Industrialisation in European Regions":

Eva-Maria Roelevink has written a report on the conference on ”Industrialisation in European Regions” that took place in Bochum last November. It is interesting and in a way pleasing to read what she writes about my presentation there: “Einen Abstraktionsschritt weiter ging SEBASTIAN HAUMANN (Darmstadt), indem er programmatisch die Frage verfolgte, inwieweit ‘Materialität’ und ‘soziale Konstruktion’ im Verhältnis stehen. […] Obgleich Haumann sich seiner eher unkonventionellen Sichtweise im Kanon der bisherigen Regionalisierungsdebatte bewusst ist, folgerte er „Regionen“ im Zusammenhang ihrer materiellen Umwelt zu definieren.”

Collaborative Grant Proposal

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:52:58 +0100

Spent most of the day revising a collaborative grant proposal on the architectural potential of 1960s/70s mass housing.

AHR Review

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:11:27 +0100

Working on a review for the American Historical Review. To my own surprise i have been invited to write a review for AHR - of course, it’s only a review, but it is nonetheless the AHR. Anyway, a manageable workload for these days between Christmas and New Year.

Strategic Presentation at TU Darmstadt

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:45:40 +0100

Presented first bits and pieces of my research results at our history department’s colloquium. I have tried to present an outline of what remains to be written over the next couple of years and read some short exemplary passages of what I have written during the last week. The prospects were grand - to say the least - but it felt good. Criticism was extremely productive and motivating!

The Society for Urban History and Urbanization (GSU) is again...

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 10:44:56 +0100

The Society for Urban History and Urbanization (GSU) is again awarding a prize for recently completed PhD dissertations in the field of urban history.

Started Writing

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:07:21 +0100

Started to write down and organize some ideas on my surface mining project. there still is a lot work to do in the archives, but after collecting material for two months and presenting the ideas several times over the last weeks, I feel like it is time to take the effort and start writing - even if it is preliminary only.

Conference on Industrializing Regions

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 07:51:31 +0100

Presented at the conference on Industrial Regions in Bochum yesterday. The whole conference seems to be dominated by economic historians. On the positive side, I am getting another insight into how economic history deals with space. On the negative side, these attempts to describe regions from an economic perspective are for the most part not very innovative and often not very convincing. It is mostly “container” space and it is easy to make out the flaws of such concepts, even when focussing on economic history. But on a whole, the conference made me think about my own work on surface mining again.

DigiPEER

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:13:22 +0100

DigiPEER:

yesterday I took part in a meeting at the Deutsche Bergbaumuseum. A group of institutions that are working in the filed of the history of technology and planning history is currently digitizing parts of their archival holdings. The documents will be available as high resolution images on the internet. The documents they will pull together seem to be very heterogenous, ranging from sketches used to construct V2 missiles in the 1930s to landscape plans prepared in the GDR. I was invited to comment on what the overall use for scientific research interested in space could be in working with these documents.

Zeitschrift für praktische Geologie

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:28:01 +0200

Went through the first decades of the Zeitschrift für praktische Geologie starting in 1893 at the Bergbau Bibliothek in Bochum today. Even though I found disappointingly little on lime or lignite mining, I found that this journal is an interesting source. I was especially struck by the many contributions that are apparently part of a colonialist agenda. Many notes about resources being discovered in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It would probably be worth going through the journal more systematically - if i only had the time to do so…

Redevelopment at Döppersberg

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 10:38:48 +0200

Redevelopment at Döppersberg:

Visited the construction site at Wuppertal’s Döppersberg last night. It is a fairly large and complex project to redevelop the area between Wuppertal main station and the inner city. What makes it so remarkable is that it is located on a steep slope (the station sits on a hillside). They have already started taking away the very top of the hill that the station used to border in order to make space for a new central bus station.

While the plans look quite attractive, it is a bit sad that Wuppertal will lose its unique station square and tunnel connecting the station with the inner city. The old (and now still existing Döppersberg) is a landmark of neglected modernism. It is a unique experience. leaving the main station and walking down this narrow, run down and yet busy tunnel-system - it will soon be gone.

Landesarchiv NRW

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 09:30:26 +0200

Spent the latter part of the week in the Landesarchiv NRW working on some files of the county authorities that supervised quarries. A lot of repetitions: neighbors complaining about rock blasting and negotiations about proper workers’ safety. Finally I took a look at a record on the cleansing of local creeks, but interestingly found no reference to mining related pollution that I had expected.

New Post-Doc and Guest Researcher Fellowships at GK "Topologie der Technik"

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:05:00 +0200

Das interdisziplinäre Graduiertenkolleg “Topologie der Technik”

ist am Fachbereich Gesellschafts- und Geschichtswissenschaften der Technischen Universität Darmstadt angesiedelt. Es wird von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) gefördert (GRK 1343).

Forschungsgegenstand des Graduiertenkollegs ist das Spannungsfeld von Technik und Raum. Das Forschungsprogramm zielt jenseits direkter Technikfolgen auf die Situiertheit, auf die Raum verändernde und Raum bildende gesellschaftliche Wirkungsmacht insbesondere sogenannter neuer Technologien. Technik-theoretischer Ausgangspunkt ist ein nicht gerätegebundenes Grundverständnis von Technik als materiellem Dispositiv. Raumtheoretisch wird beim relationalen Charakter von Räumen angesetzt. Die Beteiligten des Kollegs untersuchen die Topologie der Technik auf vier Ebenen: alltagsräumliche Persistenz, Disposition von Handlungsräumen, Planungs- und entwurfsbasierte Raumkonstruktion sowie simulationstechnische Modellierung. Näheres zum Forschungs- und Lehrprogramm sowie Informationen über die Gruppe der beteiligten Professor/innen finden Interessierte unter http://www.ifs.tu-darmstadt.de/gradkoll-tdt

Für die Dauer von maximal zwei Jahren vergibt das GK ab 1.1.2012
1 Postdoc-Stipendium

Die Ausschreibung richtet sich an Postdoktorand/innen aus den Fächern Geschichte, Informatik, Literaturwissenschaft, Maschinenbau, Philosophie, Raumplanung, Soziologie sowie Sportwissenschaft. Von den Postdocs wird nicht nur erwartet, dass sie eigener Forschung nachgehen, sondern auch, dass sie das vielseitige Qualifikationsprogramm des Kollegs mit organisieren. Dabei handelt es sich um Seminare, Workshops, Exkursionen und Tagungen. Für die Zeit der Förderung wird verlangt, dass die Postdocs ihren Wohnsitz in Darmstadt oder Umgebung nehmen.

Für das Jahr 2012 schreibt das Kolleg außerdem
4 Gast-Stipendien (jew. 3 Monate)

aus. Ein Gaststipendium bietet interessierten Nachwuchswissenschaftler/innen die Möglichkeit, im Themenbereich des Kollegs gelegene Forschungen weiterzuführen sowie den Diskussionszusammenhang des Kollegs zum wechselseitigen Austausch zu nutzen. Hierfür wird ein Arbeitsplatz mit Internetanschluss in direktem Umfeld der anderen Doktorand/innen zur Verf gung gestellt. Ausdrücklich sind auch internationale Gaststipendiaten/innen zur Bewerbung eingeladen.

Bewerbungen werden erbeten in elektronischer Form an topologie@ifs.tu-darmstadt.de bis zum 15. November 2011 Beizufügen sind (1) ein Lebenslauf, (2) die akademischen Zeugnisse, (3) eine kurze Ideenskizze für ein Postdoc-Projekt (Postdoc-Stipendium) bzw. eine Projektbeschreibung (Gast-Stipendium) und (4) die Nennung von mindestens zwei HochschullehrerInnen als Referenz. Das Bewerbungsschreiben soll die sachlichen Gründe und die persönliche Motivation für die Bewerbung beinhalten. Die eingereichten Ideenskizzen sollen sich auf Themen und Thesen des Forschungsprogramms beziehen. Bewerber/innen für ein Gast-Stipendium werden gebeten anzugeben, welchen Zeitraum sie in Darmstadt verbringen möchten. Für Nachfragen stehen die Sprecher/innen des Graduiertenkollegs zur Verfügung: Prof. Dr. Petra Gehring (gehring@phil.tu-darmstadt.de) und Prof. Dr. Mikael Hård (hard@ifs.tu-darmstadt.de).

Ein Stipendium beträgt monatlich zwischen 1.365 und 1.467 €; hinzu kommen ein Sachkostenzuschuss in der Höhe von 103 € und ggf. Kinderzulagen. Nähere Informationen zu den Förderbedingungen finden Sie unter http://www.dfg.de/download/programme/graduiertenkollegs/antragstellung/1_30_a/1_30a.pdf

Back to Darmstadt for a day

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:19:38 +0200

My first trip back to Darmstadt today. It’s a 2.5 hour ride, but it is good reading time. It was really nice to go back to the old routines of organizing work, going to the library, having lunch with colleagues. Since the semester is only starting everything was still very laid back at the TU. Actually I enjoy going there once a week and coming back the same day. It’s a hassle but it gives me the feeling of being absolutely mobile.

Bergbau Bibliothek

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:51:33 +0200

Bergbau Bibliothek:

My first visit to the Bergbau Bibliothek (Mining Library) in Bochum. I am especially interested in the older periodicals on mining in general and those journals that were issued by specific interests groups of companies engaged in lime or lignite mining. I still have to look out for scientific journals on mining engineering and geology - I haven’t yet gotten a good overview over those.