M.A. Niklaus Bartlome

PhD Student

Department of Economic, Social and Environmental History

E-Mail
niklaus.bartlome@unibe.ch
Office
D 112, Muesmattstrasse 45
Postal Address
University of Bern
Institute of History
Länggassstrasse 49
CH-3012 Bern
04.2022– PhD in Climate Sciences, University of Bern (Institute of History and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research)
09.2016–12.2020 Master of Arts in History, University of Bern
09.2011–08.2016 Bachelor of Arts in History, University of Bern
07.2005–06.2009 Federal Matura, Gymnasium Neufeld
  • Late medieval and early modern Swiss viticulture.

Wine and Volcanoes: Distal socio-economic impacts of big volcanic eruptions, especially on the early modern Swiss viticulture.

The PhD project aims to examine the socio-economic impacts of eruption-related climatic anomalies among Early Modern Swiss agrarian societies, with a special emphasis on vulnerability and resilience dictating the degree of human consequences. The main objective is to investigate, firstly the viticultural responses to volcanic-induced climatic disturbances, and secondly the socio-economic impacts of the thus resulting impacts of wine production fluctuations. The project employs a longitudinal and comparative research approach and uses a variety of annual time-series related to regional climatic, agricultural, and economic fluctuations. Furthermore, novel material on viticulture will be gathered from serial archival sources. These sources are especially promising for examining volcanism-climate-society causalities. Vine cultivation is highly sensitive to climate variability and wine production constituted on the one hand a considerable share of the economic income in certain regions of Early Modern Switzerland and on the other hand was a relevant factor towards the meeting of basic needs.

Hence, it is crucial to carefully investigate the vulnerability of viticulture to climate change, the long-term development of climate-society interactions and coping strategies for the impacts of volcanic eruptions and furthermore to provide varied climate proxy data from viticultural material for further climatological studies.