Astrid Mignon Kirchhof

Astrid Mignon Kirchhof is a senior researcher at the Centre Marc Bloch in Berlin, working on "Environment, Climate, Energy". Her research explores German history from the 19th to the 21st century in transnational and global contexts, combining environmental, social, and economic history with perspectives from gender studies. She has held positions at Humboldt University of Berlin, Georgetown University, the Deutsches Museum in Munich, and several major German research institutions, and has received funding from organizations including the DAAD, DFG, and the Volkswagen Foundation.

The project

Title: Preparatory Research, Academic Exchange, and Network Building for the Alfred Grosser Visiting Professorship Application

"This preparatory engagement is essential not only for producing a strong application but also for cultivating long-term academic collaborations with faculty and researchers across environmental history, political science, and related fields. By carefully observing and participating in Sciences Po’s academic and pedagogical practices, I will acquire a nuanced understanding of institutional norms, research priorities, and teaching approaches. This understanding will allow me to situate my proposed contribution to the Alfred Grosser Visiting Professorship within a contextually informed and strategically targeted framework, thereby strengthening both the content and the conceptual coherence of the application. Furthermore, the residency will allow me to identify potential avenues for interdisciplinary collaboration and exchange, ensuring that the proposed work reflects both the intellectual priorities of Sciences Po and the broader academic community. This preparatory phase comes at a particularly important moment in my academic career: having completed my habilitation last year and with my second book currently in press, I am entering a stage where a Visiting Professorship represents a natural and timely next step. The Alfred Grosser Visiting Professorship—and, by extension, this two-month preparatory residency—aligns perfectly with my professional trajectory, offering both intellectual depth and international visibility at a moment of transition toward greater academic independence."

Hosting institution: Sciences Po

Selective Bibliography

• Kirchhof, Astrid Mignon, Das Dienstfräulein auf dem Bahnhof: Frauen im öffentlichen Raum im Blick der Berliner Bahnhofsmission 1894–1939 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2011).
• Kirchhof, Astrid Mignon and J. R. McNeill, eds., Nature and the Iron Curtain. Environmental Policy and Social Movements in Communist and Capitalist Countries 1945–1990 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019).
• Kirchhof, Astrid Mignon, ed., Pathways Into and Out of Nuclear Power in Five Western European Countries. Austria, Denmark, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, and Sweden, Deutsches Museum Studies, vol. 3 (Münster: Deutsches Museum Verlag, 2020).
• Kirchhof, Astrid Mignon, “East-West German Transborder Entanglements through the Nuclear Waste Sites in Gorleben and Morsleben,” Journal for the History of Environment and Society 3 (2018): 145–173.
• Kirchhof, Astrid Mignon, “Spanning the Globe: Australian Protest against Uranium Mining and their West-German Supporters,” Historical Social Research 39, no. 1 (2014): 254–273.