Constantin Fasolt The University of Chicago

Ph.D. Columbia University, 1981 Karl J. Weintraub Professor Department of History and the College The University of Chicago 1126 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 Phone Office (773) 702-7935 Phone Department (773) 702-8397 Fax Department (773) 702-7550 Email icon@uchicago.edu

My work is focused on the history behind the principles of thought and action that have governed the European and American worlds since early modern times, but are now giving way under the impact of changes that are both obvious and poorly understood. These principles consist, among other things, of certain basic distinctions (e.g., self/other, nature/culture, past/present, public/private, state/church, legal/moral, etc.) and certain fundamental concepts that are built on these distinctions (e.g., sovereignty, democracy, nation, liberty, progress, science, conscience, rights, ... the list is easy to extend). Understanding what it means for us to found our thought and action on principles like these requires a perspective on European history as a whole, beginning with its medieval phase and leading all the way across the modern age to globalization and postmodernism. Indeed, the desire for a historical perspective is itself an outcome of that history, and is itself being transformed by globalization and postmodernism. That makes it necessary to go beyond focusing historical practice on this or that particular subject and to reflect systematically on the nature and significance of historical thought itself.

RESEARCH

In the past my research was focused on two main areas of inquiry. One was the disintegration of the hierarchical conception of order that dominated European thought and action during the so-called Middle Ages. The other was the replacement of that conception with a so-called modern or secular order founded on sovereign territorial states and individual citizens claiming moral autonomy and the freedom to shape their own destiny in the light of nature and natural law. I wrote my first book about late medieval theories of constitutional government that were developed in the conciliar movement and designed to maintain a hierarchical social order by means of representative assemblies (Council and Hierarchy, Cambridge 1991). I wrote my second book about the early modern turn to history and sovereignty and its significance for modern forms of subjectivity (The Limits of History, Chicago 2004).

My next book will attempt to state as briefly as possible some of the most basic lessons I hope to have learned from my work so far. It is founded on a series of lectures I gave at the University of Virginia in 2000 and is tentatively titled Liberty and Fear.

In the future, I plan to concentrate more of my energy on the philosophy of history and historiography, sailing somewhere in the wake of Wittgenstein and Heidegger towards a better understanding of the particular variety of modern science and technology in which professional historians specialize, and hoping as far as possible to lift the spell our obsession with the past has cast on our minds without forsaking the empirical research from which historical reflection draws its strength.

I have published the following books:

Among my articles, chapters, and essays are the following:

TEACHING

My teaching is evenly divided between undergraduate and graduate courses. On the undergraduate level, I teach courses in the College Core Curriculum as well as upper level undergraduate courses on the history of Europe and European social and political thought from medieval to early modern times. Occasionally I offer courses concentrating on particularly important texts, such as Jean Bodin's Six Books of the Republic or Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. On the graduate level I usually teach seminars and colloquia on one of three subjects: medieval political thought, early modern political thought, and the Protestant Reformation. No matter what the subject, however, I ask students to devote attention to its place in European history as a whole and to reflect not only on the historiography specific to the subject but also on the significance of historical work as such. I also offer introductory graduate courses on European political thought and the Reformation, and in the future I intend to offer courses focused directly on the nature and significance of historical thinking. For those who would like to know more about my teaching, I have put additional information on a separate page.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

The graduate students who work most closely with me are writing their dissertations on various aspects of European history in the period from about 1300 to 1700, usually with a definite geographical emphasis on central or northern Europe. Their interests range from late medieval theology and jurisprudence via humanism and the Protestant Reformation to seventeenth-century cultural and political history, the so-called Scientific Revolution, and the beginnings of the Enlightenment. Once they have completed their course work and passed their qualifying examinations, students usually spend at least a year in Europe in order to conduct the research for their dissertations. Most of them obtain scholarships from the Fulbright Program, the German Academic Exchange Service, or sources of funding with more specific mandates, such as the Institute for European History in Mainz, the Max-Planck-Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt, the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, the Newberry Library in Chicago, or the German Historical Institute in Washington. They commonly begin to attend professional conferences such as the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference and the International Congress on Medieval Studies or the meetings of the German Studies Association, Frühe Neuzeit Interdisziplinär, and the American Historical Association well before their dissertations are completed, whether it is in order to gain familiarity with the life of the profession or in order to publicize the results of their own research.

Further information about fellowships, research opportunities, conferences, and calls for papers in early modern European history can be found in the newsletters and websites of such organizations as the Medieval Academy of America, the Renaissance Society of America, H-Net, and the American Historical Association.