Prof. Dr. Thomas Weller

Since 2008, I have been a Research Associate at the Leibniz Institute for European History (IEG). Within the CRC Human Differentiation, I head subproject E07, Religion and Ethnicity: Transatlantic Mobility and Human Differentiation in Colonial Hispano-America.

As an early modern historian with a regional focus on the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America, I have long been interested in social distinctions in estate-based societies from a praxeological perspective.

Currently, my research focuses primarily on spatial mobility and the construction of affiliations in the Iberian Atlantic world. In recent years, I have also worked on the significance of cultural difference in early modern foreign relations, clothing as a medium of social distinction, and the history of slavery and abolition.

After studying history, German and Spanish language and literature, and education at the Universities of Cologne and Seville, I received my doctorate from the University of Münster in 2004 with a dissertation on ceremonial rank and social order in early modern Leipzig. Following a research stay in Spain, I joined the IEG as a Research Fellow in 2008.

In 2022, I completed my habilitation at JGU with a thesis on the relations between the Hanseatic cities and the Spanish monarchy. After serving as a substitute professor at FAU Erlangen–Nuremberg (2021–2023), I returned to the IEG in 2023 as a Research Associate and Privatdozent (Habilitated Lecturer) at JGU.