Biography

Dr Mathias Seiter is Principal Lecturer in History and Associate Head (Academic) for the School of Area Studies, Sociology, History, Politics, and Literature. He joined the University of Portsmouth in 2010, having previously taught at the University of Southampton. His research focuses on German and Central European history during the long nineteenth century.

Research interests

My research interests centre on liminal spaces such as port towns and borderlands as well as on identity formation, nation building, and German-Jewish history. Both of my current research projects combine questions of identity and liminality. The first explores the complex identities of Jewish minorities living in contested borderlands of the German Empire. A second project focuses on German naval towns and seaports between 1871 and 1918. It assesses the interplay and connectedness of various identities which existed within these port towns and how these identities manifested themselves in urban culture and spaces.

I am a member of the University of Portsmouth's:

• Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Cultures
• Centre for European and International Studies Research (CEISR), Cluster 'Social and Cultural History'

I also hold a honorary fellowship at the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations. I'm a member of the German History Society and on the editorial board of the Coastal Studies & Society journal.

Teaching responsibilities

I am teaching on a number of undergraduate modules for the BA (Hons) History and BA (Hons) History and Politics. My teaching focuses on modern German and European history. For example, my Specialist Option 'The Making of the German Nation' looks at how ideas about Germanness changed over 200 years.

I supervise postgraduate projects and dissertations on the Distance Learning MA in Naval, Maritime and Coastal History, the Distance Learning MA Victorian Gothic, as well as the MRes Humanities and Social Sciences. I am also supervising PhD projects on 19th and early 20th-century German and European history and culture.