Faculty and Staff
Craig M. Koslofsky
Department of History
University of Illinois
810 South Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801
telephone (217) 333-6885
fax (217) 333-2297
Academic Positions
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (8/03- )
Associate professor of history.
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (8/97-7/03)
Assistant professor of history, tenure-track.
Millersville University of Pennsylvania (8/95-7/97)
Assistant professor of history, tenure-track.
Max-Planck-Institut für Geschichte, Göttingen, Germany (10/94-7/95)
Research fellow (wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) of the Institute, division of modern history.
Education
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (9/85-8/94)
Ph.D., 1994; M.A., 1990.
Dissertation: "Death and Ritual in Reformation Germany."
Chair: Thomas N. Tentler; Committee: Hans-Christoph Rublack (Universität Tübingen), Michael MacDonald, Diane Hughes, Roy Rappaport. Cognate field: Social Anthropology.
Freie Universität Berlin (10/91-6/92)
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Fellowship: archival dissertation research.
Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Germany (9/87-6/89)
University of Michigan Graduate Exchange Fellowship: graduate coursework in history, theology, and religious studies.
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina (9/81-5/85)
Majors: History and Political Science. A.B. cum laude, 1985.
The University of Warwick, Coventry, England (1/84-6/84)
Study Abroad: History, Politics and Theatre Studies.
Research and Teaching Interests
Darkness and the night in early modern Europe; ritual and religion in early modern Germany; cultural transformation between the late Middle Ages and the Reformation; the history of daily life; paternity in early modern Europe; the history of Christianity; violence in early modern political thought.
Recent Awards and Fellowships
University of Illinois, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
Mellon Faculty Fellows Program (8/04-12/04)
Recipient of a one-semester fellowship for tenured faculty.
Public Works Historical Society (8/03)
Received the 2003 Michael Robinson Award, recognizing the single best article published in the field of public works history, for "Court Culture and Street Lighting in Seventeenth-Century Europe," Journal of Urban History 28, 6 (2002).
University of Illinois, Department of History (4/03)
Recipient of the 2003 George and Gladys Queen Award for Excellence in Teaching History.
University of Illinois, Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (3/03)
Recipient of the 2003 Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
University of Illinois, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (2/03)
Recipient of the 2003 Humanities Award for Excellence in Teaching presented by the Humanities Council and the Humanities Committee on Scholarships and Honors.
University of Illinois, Office of Instructional Resources (8/01-5/04)
Included on the university-wide "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students" for teaching in History 298 and History 305, fall semester 2001, History 201, fall semester 2002; History 306, spring semester 2002 and 2003; and History 292, spring 2004.
Center for 17th & 18th Century Studies / Clark Library,
University of California, Los Angeles (7/01)
Awarded a one-month fellowship for research on the project "Narrating the 'Night Walker' in Early Modern Cities" at the Clark Library.
National Endowment for the Humanities (9/00-8/01)
Awarded a Fellowship for University Teachers for the project "Experiencing the Night in Early Modern Europe, 1600-1800."
University of Illinois, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (9/00-5/01)
Awarded a Faculty Fellowship for the 2000-2001 program on "Cities." (Declined in order to research at the Huntington Library, San Marino, and at the Center for 17th & 18th Century Studies, University of California, Los Angeles.)
Publications
Books
The Reformation of the Dead: Death and Ritual in Early Modern Germany, 1450-1700. Early Modern History: Society and Culture. London and New York: Macmillan Press/St. Martin's Press, 2000. [See review in the American Historical Review 106, 4 (2001): 1476-77.]
Kulturelle Reformation: Sinnformationen im Umbruch 1400-1600. Edited with an introduction by Bernhard Jussen and Craig Koslofsky. Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte 145. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999. A collection of ten essays on the medieval cultural origins of the Protestant Reformation. [See review in the American Historical Review 105, 4 (2000): 1409-10.]
Articles
"Princes of Darkness: The Night at Court, 1650-1750." Manuscript of 15,000 words, under review by the Journal of Modern History.
With Dana Rabin. "The Limits of the State: Suicide, Assassination, and Execution in Early Modern Europe." In Selbsttötung als kulturelle Praxis. Ansätze eines interkulturellen historischen Vergleichs. Edited Andreas Bähr and Hans Medick. Cologne, Vienna, Weimar: Böhlau Verlag, forthcoming 2005.
"The Kiss of Peace in the German Reformation." In The Kiss in History. Edited by Karen Harvey. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2005, pp. 12-32.
"Controlling the Body of the Suicide in Saxony." In From Sin to Insanity: Suicide in Early Modern Europe. Edited by Jeffrey Watt. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004, pp. 48-63. A revised version of "Suicide and the Secularization of the Body in Early Modern Saxony." Continuity and Change 16, 1 (2001): 45-71.
"The Holy Roman Empire, 1346-1806." A 5000-word article commissioned for Europe 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. Edited by Jonathan Dewald. New York: Scribner's, 2003.
"Court Culture and Street Lighting in Seventeenth-Century Europe." Journal of Urban History 28, 6 (2002): 743-768.
"From Presence to Remembrance: The Transformation of Memory in the German Reformation." In The Work of Memory: New Directions in the Study of German Society and Culture. Edited by Alon Confino and Peter Fritzsche. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2002, pp. 25-38.
"The Establishment of Street Lighting in Eighteenth-Century Leipzig: From Court Society to the Public Sphere?" Zeitsprünge. Forschungen zur Frühen Neuzeit 4 (2001): 101-109.
"Suicide and the Secularization of the Body in Early Modern Saxony." Continuity and Change 16, 1 (2001): 45-71. An earlier version of the article appeared as "Säkularisierung und der Umgang mit der Leiche des Selbstmörders im frühmodernen Leipzig" in Im Zeichen der Krise. Religiosität im Europa des 17. Jahrhunderts. Edited by Hartmut Lehmann and Anne-Charlott Trepp. Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte 152. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999, pp. 387-403.
"‘Pest’ – ‘Gift’ – ‘Ketzerei’: Konkurrierende Konzepte von Gemeinschaft und die Verlegung der Friedhöfe (Leipzig 1536)." In Kulturelle Reformation: Sinnformationen in Umbruch 1400-1600. Edited by Bernhard Jussen and Craig Koslofsky. Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte 145. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999, pp. 131-149.
"Von der Schande zur Ehre: Nächtliche Begräbnisse im lutherischen Deutschland, 1650-1700." ["From Disgrace to Distinction: Nocturnal Burial in Lutheran Germany, 1650-1700."] Historische Anthropologie 5, 3 (1997): 350-369.
"Honour and Violence in German Lutheran Funerals in the Confessional Age." Social History 20, 3 (October 1995): 315-337.
"Die Trennung der Lebenden von den Toten: Friedhofverlegungen und die Reformation in Leipzig 1536." In Memoria als Kultur. Edited by Otto Gerhard Oexle. Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte 121. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1995, pp. 335-386.
"Separating the Living from the Dead: Wessel Gansfort and the Death of Purgatory." Essays in Medieval Studies 10 (1994): 129-143.
In Progress
With Michael Werich. "Where's the Buzz? The Effects of Coffee and Tea as recorded in Early Modern Ego Documents." Article for submission to Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture.
"Hand Grenades and the Civilizing Process: Violence at Early Modern Courts." Draft article.
Evening's Empire: A History of the Night in Early Modern Europe. Monograph of about 120,000 words, to be completed by 12/05.
Experiencing the Night in the Early Modern World. Edited with an introduction by Craig Koslofsky. A collection of essays examining daily life and the night in the early modern world, including essays on dreaming, sociability, sexuality, labor, crime and worship as nocturnal activities.
Reviews/Reports
Review of The Zimmern Chronicle: Nobility, Memory, and Self-Representation in Sixteenth-Century Germany. By Erica Bastress-Dukehart. Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate Publishing, 2002 H-German, H-Net Reviews, October, 2004. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/.
Review of Defiled Trades and Social Outcasts: Honor and Ritual Pollution in Early Modern Germany. By Kathy Stuart. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Journal of Modern History 75, 1 (2003): 197-199.
Review of Selbstmord in der Frühen Neuzeit: Diskurs, Lebenswelt und kultureller Wandel am Beispiel der Herzogtümer Schleswig und Holstein. By Vera Lind. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999. American Historical Review 106, 2 (2001): 665.
Review of The German Reformation: The Essential Readings. Edited by C. Scott Dixon. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999. Sixteenth Century Journal 32, 1 (2001): 298-300.
Review of Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria: Popular Magic, Religious Zealotry and Reason of State in Early Modern Europe. By Wolfgang Behringer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Social History 24, 3 (1999): 333-336.
Review of Zeremonialwissenschaft im Fürstenstaat. Studien zur juristischen und politischen Theorie absolutistischer Herrschaftsrepräsentation. By Miloš Vec. Frankfurt/M.: Klostermann, 1998. Majestas 7 (1999): 133-135.
Review of Stadtregiment und Bürgerfreiheit: Handlungsspielräume in deutschen und italienischen Städten des Späten Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit. Edited by Klaus Schreiner and Ulrich Meier. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994. Sixteenth Century Journal 27, 4 (1996): 1223-24.
Conference report with Peter Charles Caldwell. "'Institutionen und Ereignis: Perspektiven auf historische Praktiken und Vorstellungen gesellschaftlichen Ordnens.' An International Colloquium organized by the Max-Planck-Institut für Geschichte, Göttingen, 8-10 December 1994." German History 13, 2 (June 1995): 209-218.
Recent Conference Papers and Lectures
German Studies Association, Milwaukee (10/2/05)
Scheduled to comment on the session "Norbert Elias and Court Society."
Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Pittsburgh (11/1/03)
Presented the paper "From the Wittenberg Nightingale to the Dark Night of the Soul: Theologies of Darkness in Early Modern Christianity."
International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Quadrennial Congress 2003,
University of California, Los Angeles (8/4/03)
Gave a paper on "Experiencing the Night in Rural Early Modern Europe" in the session "Contested Perceptions of Time and Space in Eighteenth-Century Europe."
Arbeitsstelle Historische Anthroplogie, Universität Erfurt (11/22/02)
Presented a paper on "The Limits of the State in Early Modern Europe: Suicide, Assassination, and Execution" at an interdisciplinary conference on "Suicide als Cultural Practice. Initiating a Historical Comparison" organized by Andreas Bähr and Hans Medick.
Illinois Medieval Association, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2/22/02)
Gave a paper on the kiss of peace and the German Reformation.
Early Modern History Workshop, University of Chicago (1/28/02)
Invited to present research on the night in early modern representations of political power and authority. Paper circulated in advance.
German Historical Institute, Washington D.C. (11/30/01)
Presented an article on "Suicide and the Secularization of the Body in Early Modern Saxony" at a two-day conference on "Suicide in Early Modern Europe."
University of California, San Diego, Program for the Study of Religion (5/25/01)
Presented a paper on "The Strange Rise of Honorable Nocturnal Burial in Early Modern Europe."
Center for 17th & 18th Century Studies / Clark Library,
University of California, Los Angeles (10/6/00)
Presented research at a two-day conference on "Reading Space: Direction and Discovery in an Expanding World," part of the Center's 2000-2001 program on "Culture and Authority in the Baroque." Precirculated paper title: "The 'Uses and Divisions of the Night' in Early Modern Europe."
Bedford Centre for the History of Women, Royal Holloway, University of London (7/1/00)
Gave a paper titled "From Peace to Polemics: The Kiss in the German Reformation" at an interdisciplinary conference on "The Kiss in History."
Clements Library, University of Michigan, (5/5/00)
Presented a paper on "Experiencing the Night in Early Modern Germany" at the conference "Religion and Learning in Medieval and Early Modern Europe," held in honor of Thomas N. Tentler.
University of Missouri-Kansas City (2/18/00)
Gave the "Europe and the World" annual public lecture on The Reformation of the Dead; met with a humanities faculty workshop to discuss draft of article on "Pleasure and Power: The Court, the City and the Night in Early Modern Saxony."
American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Chicago (1/8/00)
Gave a paper on "Embracing the Night: Street Lighting in Early Modern Europe" in a session on "Building History: New Research in the Analysis of Spaces and Structures."
Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, St. Louis (10/28/99)
Invited to speak at a plenary session sponsored by the Society for Reformation Research on "Religion and Society in Early Modern Europe: New Approaches."
European History Colloquium, Cornell University (2/18/99)
Presented my work on "Pleasure and Power: Experiencing the Night in Early Modern Germany."
Universität Gesamthochschule Kassel (8/7/97)
Presented research on "Night Life, the Public Sphere and Court Society in Early Modern Saxony" at a three-day conference on "Grenzen und Grenzüberschreitungen in Leipzig 1500-1800."
Center for 17th & 18th Century Studies / Clark Library,
University of California, Los Angeles (5/3/97)
Presented a paper on "Pleasure and Power: Experiencing the Night at the Saxon Court, 1656-1733" at a two-day conference titled "Beyond Elias? Court Society: The Center as Symbol and Locus of Power."
German Studies Association, Seattle (10/12/96)
Gave a paper on "Night Life, Street Lighting and the Public Sphere in Eighteenth Century Leipzig" in a session on "Maps, Gardens and Streets: Creating Urban and Courtly Space" at the twentieth annual meeting of the association.
Historisches Seminar, Universität Basel (6/26/96)
Presented paper titled "Fegefeur, Friedhöfe, Reformation: Kulturelle Transformation im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert" at the history department seminar series on "Forschungsprobleme der Vormoderne."
Max-Planck-Institut für Geschichte, Göttingen (6/13/96)
Presented research on "The Body of the Suicide in Early Modern Leipzig" at the three-day conference on "Säkularisierung, Dechristianisierung, Rechristianisierung: Christentum in Europa im 17. Jahrhundert."
Max-Planck-Institut für Geschichte, Göttingen (6/16/95)
Gave paper on "Pestilenz, Gift and Keczerei in Reformation Leipzig" at an international colloquium on "Semantische Umordnung und soziale Transformation in der frühen Reformation (1400-1525)."
Max-Planck-Institut für Geschichte, Arbeitsgruppe "Ostelbische Gutsherrschaft" an der Universität Potsdam (2/22/95)
Presented paper on "Nächtliche Begräbnisse im lutherischen Deutschland 1650-1700."
Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Toronto (10/29/94)
Presented paper on "Establishing Authority in German Church Visitations, 1522-1600."
Institut für Europäische Geschichte, Mainz (6/30/93)
Presented paper on "Die Trennung der Lebenden von den Toten: Friedhofverlegungen und die Reformation 1527-1536."
Illinois Medieval Association, Loyola University Chicago (2/20/93)
Presented essay on "Wessel Gansfort (c.1410-1489) and the Reformation of Purgatory" at the association’s tenth annual meeting.
Teaching Experience
Department of History, University of Illinois
Associate Professor (8/03- ); Assistant Professor (8/97-7/03)
Undergraduate courses include "Western Civilization to 1660," "The History of Night," "The Age of the Renaissance," "Reformation Europe," senior seminars on "Salvation and Society in Fifteenth-Century Europe" and "Diaries and Daily Life in Early Modern Europe," and a "Methods and Historiography" course for honors students. Graduate seminars: "The Transformation of Western Christianity, 1400-1600," and "Historiography."
Department of History, Millersville University of Pennsylvania
Assistant Professor (8/95-7/97)
Undergraduate courses: "Renaissance and Reformation Europe," "Europe and the World, 1500-1815," "Traditional Germany, 800-1806," and "Modern Germany, 1806 to the Present."
Honors course: "The Western Intellectual Tradition from Antiquity to the Enlightenment."
Graduate course: "Women and Gender in the Study of Early Modern Europe."
updated 4/27/05