Dr. Kilian Harrer

• ​​​Religion and politics in the early modern period and the 19^th century
• Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment
• History of mobility (esp. 18^th- and 19^th-century Europe)
• History of border regimes and borderlands
• History of work
• Animal and environmental history / more-than-human history

Excellent Insects: Beekeeping, Silk Farming, and the Ecological Dilemmas of the Enlightenment

This research project is about insect farming as a socially and ecologically significant arena of the Enlightenment. The aims of the project are twofold. On the one hand, it sheds light on the pan-European Enlightenment’s production of knowledge about honeybees and silkworms as “useful” animals whose ceaseless activity would help advance human wealth. On the other hand, a case study of Brandenburg-Prussia zooms in on practical eighteenth-century efforts to maximize the fruits of human–insect collaboration, as well as on the changes and conflicts that came about as a result. Ultimately, the project queries the role that human–animal relationships, with all the attendant ecological problems, played in the transformation of work and in social constructions of industriousness on the threshold of modernity.

Outreach / Public History

• "Urlaub im Mittelalter" [Vacations in the Middle Ages], podcast episode on the history of pilgrimage, Tonspur Wissen (June 18, 2026).
• (with Henriette Baron und Andreas Frings) organization und moderation of four public talks on the topic of “Geschichtsmythen auf dem Prüfstand” [Debunking Historical Myths on Trial], a hist4dem event at the Leibniz Center for Archeology, Mainz (May–July 2026).
• “Von Bienen lernen? Historische Ideen vom Bienenstock als Modell für menschliche Gesellschaft” [Learning from Bees? Historical Ideas of the Beehive as a Model for Human Society], public talk at Science Schoppe, Mainz (August 20, 2025).
• (with Andreas Frings) organization und moderation of a debate on “Geschichte in der postkolonialen Demokratie” [History in a Postcolonial Democracy], a hist4dem event at the Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz (May 8, 2025).
• «Zwei Madonnen – eine zu viel? Was die Geschichte der Malberger Marienstatue mit alten Grenzstreitigkeiten zu tun hat», in: Malberger Schloßbote, Nr. 16 (2021), pp. 28–31.

• (with Manfred Sing and Malin Wilckens) “Nature as a Resource across Regions and Time Periods,” workshop at the Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz (July 3, 2026)
• “Hallowed Efforts? Work and Religion in Europe and beyond, c. 1450–c. 1850,” international workshop at the Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz (April 10–11, 2025)
• “Honor, Religion, and Sexuality in Early Modern France and beyond,” panel at the 44^th Annual Conference of the Western Society for French History, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (November 4, 2016)

• American Historical Association
• Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands
• Österreichische Gesellschaft zur Erforschung des 18. Jahrhunderts

• Early Career Prize of the Historical Journal for best article by an early career researcher published in the journal in 2023 (Mass Pilgrimage and the Usable Empire)
• Curti Teaching Fellowship of the History Department, University of Wisconsin–Madison, for a self-designed course titled “How To Live Forever: Soul, Body, and Utopia in European History,” taught in 2021
• Excellence in Teaching Award of the History Department, UW–Madison, 2020
• Charles Crouch Prize for best graduate student paper at the annual conference of the Consortium on the Revolutionary Era, 2020
• International Dissertation Research Fellowship of the Social Science Research Council, 2018–2019
• Millstone Research Fellowship of the Western Society for French History, 2018
• Bloomenkranz Graduate Student Travel Prize of the Center for European Studies, UW–Madison, 2018
• bourse d’études of the Fondation Napoléon, 2017