Julia Roos
- Assistant Professor, Department of History
Education
- M.A. at University of Bremen, German, 1994
- M.A. at Carnegie Mellon University, 1995
- Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University, 2001
Contact Information
| Ballantine Hall, Rm. 715 |
| (812) 855-1682 |
Background
I am a historian of modern Europe with a special focus on twentieth-century Germany, gender, and sexuality. My forthcoming book on the history of prostitution in the Weimar Republic (1918-1933) explores how shifts in established gender relations and sexual mores after the First World War affected the stability of Germany’s first experiment in liberal-democratic government. Liberal gender reforms like the decriminalization of prostitution nourished a powerful right-wing backlash that played a major role in the destruction of Weimar democracy and the rise of National Socialism. From the example of Weimar, I have learned how important it is to integrate gender analysis into the study of politics and the state. In my research and teaching, I pay special attention to the relevance of conflicts over gender for larger processes of social, cultural, and political change.
Among the courses I have taught are surveys of German history and culture from the Reformation to the present, as well as classes on western women’s movements, the history of prostitution, and dictatorship in twentieth-century Europe.
Selected Awards
- 2002 Fritz Stern Prize for the best dissertation in the field of German history submitted at a North American university, The German Historical Institute, Washington, D.C.
Research Interests
- Modern Germany; women and gender; sexuality; social/political/cultural
Courses Recently Taught
- B260: European Women’s Movements, 1780s-1980s
- B377 & B378: History of Germany since 1648 I & II
- J300: Contemporary Germany
- J300: Gender and Power: Historical Perspectives on Prostitution
- H620 & H720: Twentieth-Century Europe
- H620: Modern Europe through the Lens of Gender
- H620: The Weimar Republic
Publication Highlights
Books
Weimar’s Crisis through the Lens of Gender: The Case of Prostitution. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, forthcoming in 2007.
Articles
“Backlash against Prostitutes’ Rights: Origins and Dynamics of Nazi Prostitution Policies,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 11, nos. 1/2 (January/April 2002): 67-94. Reprinted in Dagmar Herzog, ed., Sexuality and German Fascism. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books, 2005.
“Prostitutes, Civil Society, and the State in Weimar Germany,” in Frank Trentmann, ed., Paradoxes of Civil Society: New Perspectives on Modern German and British History. (New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2000), 263-80.