The Center for European Studies, the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia, and the Department of History are pleased to welcome Dr. Thomas Cauvin for a semester-long postdoctoral fellowship in the University of Michigan’s Department of History. Thomas Cauvin earned his PhD in history at the European University Institute in Florence. A native of Rouen (France), he was educated at the Universities of Rouen (BA, 2000), Cork (MPhil, 2001), Sciences-Po (MA, 2002), La Sorbonne (Paris, 2005), and the European University Institute (PhD, 2012). He has been a research fellow at the University College Dublin (2009), and New York University (2010). His dissertation, National Museums and the Mobilization of History in Ireland and Northern Ireland: Commemorative Exhibitions of Anglo-Irish Conflicts (1921-2006), offers a comparative historical study of representations of controversial pasts. While researching on Ireland and Northern Ireland, Dr. Cauvin has pursued parallel interests in museums and material culture in Europe, memory and history, and public and digital history, on which he has published several articles and book chapters. His current projects deal with public understanding of the past in Europe and museum visitors’ reception/interpretations of historical narratives.

During his residency at U-M, Dr. Cauvin will teach a course in the Department of History titled, “The Uses of the Past in 20th Century Europe: From the Great War to the House of European History (1914-2012).” The course will explore political uses of the past in Europe from the early twentieth century to the present day. On January 24, 2013 he will give a lecture in the Conversations on Europe series titled, “When the Past is Present: Museums and the Mobilization of History in Ireland and Northern Ireland (1966-2006).”

The Postdoctoral Fellowship for European University Institute PhDs was introduced in 2011 to foster teaching and research on European integration. Applicants from any of the four EUI programs (Political and Social Sciences, Economics, History, and Law) are welcome to apply. While in residence in Ann Arbor, postdoctoral fellows teach one undergraduate course and pursue their research