Enya Robustelli
Enya Robustelli studies history and German philology at the University of Basel. She is particularly interested in social history and the history of bodies, sexuality and animals. She joined the "Dynastic Reproduction" team as a student assisant in February 2025.
Email: e.robustelli@unibas.ch

Former student assistants

Nadia Tamm
Nadia Tamm studies history at the University of Basel and is particularly interested in gender history and the analysis of power structures. She worked for the "Dynastic reproduction" project from August 2023 to January 2025.
Email: nadia.tamm@unibas.ch

Nicolas Galli
Nicolas Galli has studied history at the University of Bern. He has written his master’s thesis on Pope Benedict XIV Lambertini (1675-1758) and his economical practices in the papal states, the archbishopric of Bologna and his family. Nicolas is interested in early modern political, social and diplomatic history. He was part of the project from August 2023 to October 2024 as a scientific collaborator and digital humanities support. 
Email: nicolas.galli@unibas.ch

Laurie Rudaz
Laurie Rudaz has studied history at the University of Fribourg. She has written her master’s thesis on Antoinette Bourignon, a female prophet of the seventeenth century. Laurie is interested in modern religious history and gender history. She worked for the „Dynastic Reproduction“ project from September 2022 to July 2023.
Email: laurie.rudaz@unifr.ch

Laurence Koellmann
Laurence Koellmann has studied history at the University of Fribourg. She has written her master’s thesis on French descriptions of Native American allies in the Seven Years‘ War. Laurence is interested in early modern global history and the history of travelogues. She worked for the „Dynastic Reproduction“ project from August 2021 to August 2022.
Email: laurence.koellmann@unifr.ch

On Wednesday, 21st of May, Pascal Firges (Basel) will hold a lecture with the title "Wer? Was? Wann? ‚Aussereuropäische‘ Argumente im europäischen Geschlechterdiskurs der Frühen Neuzeit" as part of the research colloquium ‘Current Research on the History of Pre-Modernity’ at the Department of History of the University of Basel. 

When: Wednesday, 21st of May, 6:15-8:00 pm

Where: Departement of History, Hirschgässlein 21, 4056 Basel, Seminarraum 1

Here you can find the program of the research colloquium.

May 14th 2025, Alumni Geschichte spring event with Prof. Dr. Nadine Amsler

‘At a distance? Emotions in the princely nursery of the early modern period’
Lecture by Prof. Dr. Nadine Amsler

There seems to have been little room for emotional closeness at the princely court in the early modern period. Educational writings advised princes and princesses to maintain distance from their social environment in order to avoid favouritism. This habitus of rulers was to be practised from an early age; governesses and doctors, wet nurses and nannies were required to treat the princely children with the necessary respect at all times. Against this background, what role did feelings and emotionality play in the everyday lives of young princely children?

The lecture explores this question using the example of the Munich electoral court and explores the possibilities of an emotional history of the princely nursery in the early modern period.

Wednesday, May 14th 2025, 6.30 pm
Basel University Library, lecture theatre 1st floor, 4056 Basel

After the event there will be an aperitif and time for personal encounters.

Registration is not necessary.

Here you can find the program of the lecture.

Where and When: 12th to 14th of June 2024, Kloster Dornach, Amthausstrasse 7, 4143 Dornach, Switzerland
Organized by Nadine Amsler (Basel), Cristian Consuegra (Basel) and Pascal Firges (Bielefeld/Duisburg-Essen)
Abstract: To what extent did European contemporaries in the early modern period perceive not only Europe as a society of princes, but also the entire globe as a world of kings and queens? Based on this question, this workshop is dedicated to European descriptions of dynastic orders of distant lands by travelers and receiving authors in the early modern period. It is particularly interested in the interactions between local knowledge and the translocal discourses in which travelogues, country descriptions and correspondence were integrated. We are not only interested in the modes and purposes of acquiring knowledge about local forms of rule, but also in the addressees of descriptions of the systems of rule of distant countries. We also raise the question of whether and under what circumstances observing the ruling systems of distant countries was also able to trigger a reflection on one’s own understanding of dynastic rule.

Here you can find the program of the workshop.

Here you can find the conference report.

As part of the convention Deutscher Historikertag at the University of Leipzig, Nadine Amsler will give a lecture on September 21st 2023 entitled: A Call for Help from China? Rome and the Letter of the Last Empress of the Ming Dynasty.

You can find the programme for the event under the following link: https://www.historikertag.de/Leipzig2023/programm/sektionen/geruechte-geheimnisse-falschnachrichten-zur-evaluation-politischer-informationen-im-17-und-18-jahrhundert/

Nadine Amsler at the Swiss Congress of Historical Sciences

The 6^th edition of the Schweizerische Geschichtstage were dedicated to the overaching topic “Nature” and held in Geneva from 29 June to 1 July 2022. We participated with the panel “Nature versus nurture? Children’s ‘nature’ in pedagogical discourse and practice”.