The Bochum Institute is headed by Professor Stefan Berger, who specialises in nationalism and national identity studies, historiography and historical theory, comparative labour studies, and the history of industrial heritage. Before coming to Bochum, he taught at Cardiff, the University of Glamorgan, and Manchester University.
Alexander said, “I am honoured to have been elected to this key role, and to serve a hugely successful institution which has greatly expanded its activities since its foundation in 1980. The Institute has a unique position offering students, researchers and the interested public a wide range of services – in particular with regard to social movements and the past and present of the Ruhr region, Germany’s largest urban area with a population of over 5 million.
“I am keen to help expand the Institute’s many international links. The Institute is particularly committed to the International Association of Labour History Institutions (IALHI), the European Graduate School for Training in Economic and Social Historical Research (ESTER), and the International Conference of Labour and Social History. The History of the Ruhr Foundation, which is at the backbone of the Institute, also funds the Bochum Historians’ Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in the field of history in Germany. Past laureates include UK-based historians Eric Hobsbawm, Catherine Hall, and Frank Trentmann. I would encourage colleagues at Bangor to consider contributing articles to the institute’s international and peer-reviewed journal, Moving the Social – Journal of Social History and the History of Social Movements, which is rooted in the discipline of history but with an explicit interest in work produced on social affairs and social movements by other disciplines, in particular the social sciences, geography, anthropology and ethnology.”