Project at HIAS
Tracing Disciplinary Entanglements: Geography, Colonialism, and Public Memory
Within the framework of his HIAS fellowship, Tobit Nauheim examines the entanglement of geography with political and colonial power structures in the twentieth century, with particular attention to the National Socialist period. It foregrounds geographers as intermediaries between academic knowledge production and political institutions, reconstructing colonial revisionist networks through archival research and network analysis. These findings are situated within broader debates in the history of science and postcolonial studies. The project also explores innovative forms of public engagement with contested disciplinary histories, including artistic approaches.
His Tandem Partner is Martina Neuburger, Professor for Integrative Geography at the University of Hamburg.
Website
Funding
The HIAS Fellowship is provided by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the federal and state funds acquired by the University of Hamburg in the framework of its Excellence Strategy.
Tandem
Prof. Dr. Martina Neuburger, Integrative Geography, University of Hamburg
Biography
Tobit Nauheim is a geographer. He has held a position as research associate at the University of Bonn, working in historical geography and geography education. Since October 2025, he has been a member of the Martin Buber Society of Fellows at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Tobit Nauheim’s research is grounded in historical geography and the history of science, from which it develops historically informed perspectives on contemporary questions in human geography. Central concerns include the epistemic, political, and ethical dimensions of geographical knowledge production. A further emphasis lies on the communication and mediation of geographical knowledge—both historically and in the present—across public formats and school-based education.
Tobit Nauheim’s HIAS Fellowship is provided by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the federal and state funds acquired by the University of Hamburg in the framework of its Excellence Strategy.
Image Information
Carl Troll: Forms of Land Use. Archive of the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn Call number: Troll Estate – 659, 1935–1936: “Africa: Nature, Culture, and Colonization, Winter Semester 1935/36”