Jessica CE Gienow-Hecht

Jessica CE Gienow-Hecht (* 1964 in Essen ) is a German historian and head of the history department at John-F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin . Her focus is the role of culture in international relations (international cultural relations, cultural diplomacy, soft power, nation branding).

Life

Jessica Gienow-Hecht studied after graduating from Humboldt-Gymnasium in Düsseldorf (1983) French, Spanish and history at RWTH Aachen with the intermediate diploma in 1988 and at the University of Virginia with a master’s degree in 1990 and a doctorate in 1995. Her title the dissertation is called Cultural Transmission and the US Occupation in Germany. The Neue Zeitung, 1945-55. She then carried out research as a post-doctoral student at Bielefeld University before heading the Center for US Studies at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg as deputy director from 1996 to 1999 ; In 2003 she completed her habilitation there with a thesis entitled Music and Emotions in German-American Relations since 1850 . In 1999 she went to Harvard University for four years : first as a John F. Kennedy Fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University (1999–2000), then as a Visiting Fellow at the Charles Warren Center for the Study of American History (2000–2001 ) and as a scholarship holder of the German Research Foundation (2001–2002). From 2002 to 2003 she taught as a lecturer at Harvard Humanities. She then won a Heisenberg grant from the DFG, which took her to the Center for North America Research at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main for teaching and research . In 2009 she was appointed professor for international history at the Historical Institute of the University of Cologne . Since 2013 she has been professor and head of the history department at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin .

In 2011 she was visiting professor at the Graduate School of Global Studies at Dōshisha University in Kyoto . In 2016 she did research as a Global Humanities Senior Research and Teaching Fellow at Harvard University . In 2017 she held the Alfred Grosser Chair at the Center d'histoire des Sciences Po in Paris.

Research priorities

Jessica Gienow-Hecht's main area of ​​interest is the role of culture in the history of international relations with a special focus on the North American region. She initially conducted research in the field of cultural history, but then turned to international relations in the course of the “cultural turn” in diplomacy history in the 1990s. Her first monograph  Transmission Impossible  reflected political, cultural and media studies analyzes, while her second monograph Sound Diplomacy made references to psychology, musicology and the history of emotions. For several years, Gienow-Hecht has been working intensively on two topics: 1. The interplay between commercial advertising and international self-portrayal of nation states (“nation branding”); 2. with the rhetoric and emotion of human rights and humanitarianism (“what is humanity?”).

Fonts (selection)

Books

• Nation Branding in Modern History. Ed. with Carolin Viktorin, Annika Estner, and Marcel Will. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2018.
• "Introduction",  Music and International History in the Twentieth Century.  (New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2015), 1-28. The introduction is online .
• (Reviews of  Music and International History : Midwest Book Review, H-Soz-Kult, H-Net, the Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies, Anthropology News.)
• Transmission Impossible. American Journalism As Cultural Diplomacy in Postwar Germany, 1945-1955 . Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999. (H-Soz-Kult Review)
• Culture and International History . Ed. with Frank Schumacher. Oxford, New York. Berghahn Books, 2003. (Reviews: H-Net and H-Soz-Kult.)
• Decentering America . Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books, 2007.
• Sound diplomacy. Music, Emotions, and Politics in Transatlantic Relations since 1850.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009; Kindle edition 2009; Paperback 2012. (Chinese version forthcoming, Beijing: Beijing Yanziyue Culture & Art Studio). Read a review from H-Soz-Kult here.
• Emotions in American History. Ed. Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books, 2010. (Reviews: H-Net and H-Soz-Kult.)
• Searching for a Cultural Diplomacy . Ed. w / Mark Donfried. Berghahn Books, 2010.
• Editor of the series  Explorations in Culture and International History . Oxford, New York. Berghahn Books, since 2003.

Current essays and articles

• With Carolin Viktorin, "What is and why is“ Nation Branding ”needed? An attempt to gain new access to power and culture in international relations using the example of the Spanish dictatorship under Franco." In  International History in Theory and Practice / International History in Theory and Practice. Eds. Barbara Haider-Wilson, William D. Godsey, and Wolfgang Mueller (Publishing House of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2017).
• Review with Carolin Viktorin of  US Public Diplomacy and Democratization in Spain: Selling Democracy? , Francisco Javier Rodriguez Jimenez, Lorenzo Delgado Gómez-Escalonilla, Nicholas J. Cull, eds., In H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews December 2016.
• “Nation Branding”. In  Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations . 3rd ed. Ed. Frank Costigliola and Michael Hogan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016).
• With Carolin Viktorin, “What is nation branding and why? Attempt a new approach to power and culture in international relations using the example of the Spanish dictatorship ”, in“ International History in Theory and Practice: Traditions and Perspectives ”/“ International History in Theory and Practice: Traditions and Perspectives ”, ed. Barbara Haider -Wilson, Wolfgang Mueller, William D. Godsey (Vienna: Verlag Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2017).
• "Europe's Cultural Habitus: Anti-Americanism in Europe in the Twentieth Century," in  Transatlantic Relations and Modern Diplomacy: An Interdisciplinary Examination , ed. Sudeshna Roy, Dana Cooper, and Brian M. Murphy (London: Routledge 2014), 189-212 .
• “Protest und Dissens,” in  Buchner's History College - Berlin Edition , ed. Maximilian Lanzinner, Vol. 2 (Bamberg: CC Buchner 2012), 211-212, and  Buchner’s History College - Brandenburg Edition (Bamberg; CC Buchner 2013), 396-397.
• “Nation Branding,” in  Dimensions of International History , ed. Wilfried Loth and Jost Dülffer, (Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag, 2012).
• "The World Is Ready To Listen: Symphony Orchestras and the Global Performance of America," Diplomatic History.  Forum “Musical Diplomacy: Strategies, Agendas, Relationships”. Diplomatic History 36, 1 (January 2012): 17-28.
• “Buy One Get One Free,” Forum on Laura Belmonte's  Selling the American Way . H-Diplo (September 2011).
• “'¡No, no somos así!' El despliegue de la cultura americana en Europa durante la Guerra Fría ”(“ 'No, we are not!' The Deployment of American Culture in Europe during the Cold War. ”) In  Guerra Fría y Propaganda . Estados Unidos y su cruzada cultural en Europa y América Latina, ed. Antonio Niño and José Antonio Montero. Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 2012, 41-77.

Awards (selection)

• 2017 Alfred Grosser Chair, Sciences Po
• 2009 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award for Sound Diplomacy .
• 2004 to 2009 Heisenberg Fellow of the German Research Foundation
• 2000/01 Warren Center Fellowship from Harvard University
• Myrna F. Bernath Prize of the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) for Transmission Impossible
• 1999/2000 John F. Kennedy Fellowship from Harvard University
• 1994 Goldsmith Research Award, Harvard University
• 1993 Research Fellowship for Younger German Scholars for American History, German Marshall Fund of the United States, Berlin

Memberships and editorial activities (selection)

• 2001 to 2003 Editorial Board, Diplomatic History
• 2004 to 2006 selection committee, Bernath Article Prize, Society for the History of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR)
• since 2006 Advisory Board, European Journal of American Studies
• since 2006 Advisory Board, Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, Berlin
• 2010 to 2013 Membership Committee, SHAFR  
• since 2012 selection committee, John F. Kennedy Fellowship (DAAD / Harvard University)
• since 2011 board member, Organization for Identity and Cultural Development, Kyoto 
• since 2015 selection committee, dissertation award of the working group on international history, Association of Historians of Germany
• since 2016 selection committee, research award, Institute for Foreign Affairs, Stuttgart

Web links

• Literature by and about Jessica CE Gienow-Hecht in the catalog of the German National Library
• Jessica CE Gienow-Hecht on the website of the Free University of Berlin

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Homepage , About the person