The invitations to Bielefeld via the Mercator Fellowships are intended to facilitate particularly intensive cooperation on questions and topics of the SFB. Dr. Franz Mauelshagen works on anthropology and the implications of this idea for global history, global environmental history and our understanding of modernity and its place in the history of great transformations.

For Franz Mauelshagen, the interest in comparing is on the one hand based on historical theory. Of particular interest to him is the theory of historical change pursued by the SFB, especially with taking into account the postcolonial aspects that play a role here. On the other hand, he has, among other things, worked on Alexander von Humboldt and his comparative climatology. This climatology would probably not have existed without the scientific debate on practices of comparing, the effects of which are still noticeable today.
A working paper on these topics is planned, which Franz Mauelshagen will prepare during his time as Mercator Fellow in Bielefeld.