Prof. Dr. Timothy Nunan

Professor for Transregional Cultures of Knowledge

Office Hours (Summer Semester 2025): TBA

CV

Academic Positions

10/2022-	Appointment as Professor?for Transregional Cultures of Knowledge at the University of?Regensburg
04/2022-09/2022	Guest Professorship?(Vertretungsprofessur) for?Global History at the Free University of Berlin
10/2016-03/2022	Head of Volkswagen "Freigeist" Junior Research Group???The Cold War's Clash of Civilizations? at Center for Global History, Free University of Berlin
09/2015-06/2016	Harvard Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, Harvard University
10/2014-08/2015	Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellow?at Zentralasien-Seminar, Humboldt Universit?t zu Berlin
09/2013-06/2014	Harvard Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, Harvard University

Academic Training

07/2013	Awarded D.Phil. in History,?Faculty of History,?University of Oxford
10/2011-07/2013	Doctoral Student at the?Faculty of History,?University of Oxford
09/2011?	Awarded?M.Phil. in Economic and Social History,?Faculty of History,?University of Oxford
10/2009-06/2011	M.Phil. Student in Economic and Social History at the?Faculty of History, University of Oxford
10/2008-09/2009	Fulbright Scholar and Student of?History and Slavic Studies at?Georg-August-Universit?t G?ttingen and Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin
09/2004-06/2008?	Bachelor's Student in?German Studies and European Cultural Studies at Princeton University

Research

Research Interests

History of the Soviet Union in a global context; socialist internationalism; Soviet development aid in the Global South; Communist movements in the Global South
History of Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Iran
Entanglements between the post-socialist world and the Islamic world
Imperial entanglements in 19th and 20th century Eurasia: Russian Empire/USSR, Ottoman Empire, Iran, China, Japan
History of the Cold War in a global context
History of the spread and reception of revolutionary ideologies: Communism, Islamism, Maoism
World order politics and the history of international order; alternative international orders (Communism, Pan-Islamism, the Non-Aligned Movement, the New International Economic Order)
History of international development
International political economy; global monetary policy

Publications

Monographs

Humanitarian Invasion: Global Development in Cold War Afghanistan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.

In Preparation

Islamist Internationalism: Between the Cold War and Decolonization

Edited Translations

Carl Schmitt,?Writings on War.?Cambridge: Polity, 2011

Selected Articles

“Doomed to Good Relations: The Soviet Union, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Fate of Anti-Imperialism in the 1980s,”?The Journal of Cold War Studies?(Winter 2022)
“Asymmetries of Internationalism: Performing and Remembering Subnational Internationalism in the Age of Developed Socialism,”?The Russian Review?80:4 (September 2021).
“‘Neither East Nor West,’ Neither Liberal Nor Illiberal? Iranian Islamist Internationalism in the 1980s,”?Journal of World History?31:1 (2020).
“Persian Visions of Nationalism and Inter-Nationalism in a World at War,” in?Beyond Versailles: Sovereignty, Legitimacy, and the Formation of New Polities After the Great War, Hrsg. v. Marcus Payk und Roberta Pergher. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019.
“Graveyard of Development? Development in Cold War Afghanistan,” in?The Development Century, Hrsg. v. Erez Manela und Stephen Macekura. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
“An Union Reframed: Postwar Soviet Documentary Photography and Central Asia,”?Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History?17:3 (Sommer 2016).
“Getting Re-Acquainted with the 'Muslims of the USSR': Staging Soviet Islam in Iran and Turkey, 1980-1982,”?Ab Imperio?(4/2011).
“Under a Red Veil: Staging Afghan Emancipation in Moscow,”?The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review?38:1 (2011).
“Soviet Nationalities Policy,?USSR in Construction, and Soviet Documentary Photography in Comparative Context, 1931-1937,”?Ab Imperio?(2/2010)

Teaching and Science Communication

Teaching

Summer Semester 2025

Decolonization and the End of European Empires
The Global Cold War
Global History: Methods, Approaches, Sources
Intellectuals and Decolonization
Topics in Intellectual History: Malcolm X

Winter Semester 2024/25

American Conservatism: Intellectuals, Movements, Institutions
Central Asia from Independence to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, 1991-2022
The Iranian Revolution: A Global History
What Is American Conservatism?

Summer Semester 2024

The 1970s
The Cold War: A Global History
Regional Histories of the Cold War: Europe, Asia, the Middle East
Russia's Wars
Tips, Tricks and Hacks: How to Design, Write and Revise a Research Project in the Humanities and Area Studies

Winter Semester 2023/24

History Lab: Mit digitalen Archiven forschen und wissenschaftliche Kurzvideos produzieren am Beispiel der digitalisierten Archive des V?lkerbundes
Trauma and Cultural Production in Post-Conflict Societies: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon

Summer Semester 2023

The Cold War: A Global History
Colonization and Decolonization in Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe and Eurasia
Hannah Arendt?

Winter Semester 2022/23

Research Colloquium for Transregional History
Afghanistan and the Great Powers
Transregional Eurasia, 1850s-Present

Science Communication

(Selection)

2021 Interview on the history of Afghanistan, American Prestige Podcast

2021 Interview on the history of Afghanistan, The Peel Podcast, 08.10.2021?

2021 Interview on the elections in Germany, American Prestige Podcast, 27.09.2021

2021 Interview on the history of the USSR in Afghanistan, The Slavic Connexion Podcast, 24.09.2021?

2021 Interview on the history of Afghanistan, Counterpoint Podcast with Amanda Vanstone (Australia), 13.09.2021

2021 Interview on the history of Afghanistan, Politics, Theory, Other Podcast, 03.09.2021

2021 Interview on the history of Afghanistan, Himal Southasian magazine (Colombo, Sri Lanka), 31.08.2021

2021 Interview on the history of Afghanistan, ?1 Europa Journal, ?RF, 30.08.2021

2021 Article on the history of development aid in Afghanistan, Noema magazine (Los Angeles, USA), 24.08.2021

Projects and networking

Committee work and academic functions

Internationalization Officer of the Faculty PKGG (2022-)

Reviewer activity (selection): Ab Imperio; American Councils; American Political Science Review; Cambridge University Press; Central Asian Survey; Columbia University Press; European Commission Research Executive Agency; European Research Council; Indiana University Press; International History Review Journal of Cold War Studies; Journal of Global History Kritika; Oxford University Press; Stanford University Press; Routledge

Lectures and conferences

(Selection)

Lectures

2025 “Islam and the Cold War,” Pierre du Bois Conference, Geneva Graduate Institute, 21.01.2025

2024 “The Shi'a Islamist Discovery of the Third World, 1960s-1980s,” University of California, Berkeley, February 24, 2024

2023 “From the ‘Imam of Atheism’ to ‘Orthodox Iran’: Russia and Shi'a Islamist Movements, 1970s - Present,” Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia, University of Michigan, USA 13.09.2023

2022 “Lighting a Candle for Khomeini: How the Human Rights Movement Transformed the Islamic Movement in the Long 1970s,” University of Connecticut, USA 14.04.2022?

2021 “Iranian Islamist Internationalism and Histories of the Cold War,” The PostCold War Middle East: Iran, Iraq and International Politics in the 1980s, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 06.05.2021?

2020 “Iran's Soviet-Afghan War: Revolutions, Diasporas, Diplomacy, 1970s-1990s,” International History Forum, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Switzerland, 15.12.2020?

Conferences and workshops?

2023 “Reform's Long Shadows: Global Reactions to Perestroika and 'Reform and Opening Up,” Point Alpha Research Institute, October 5-7, 2023?

2019 “Cold War Islamisms,” Freie Universit?t Berlin, 15.3.2019-16.3.2019?

2018 “New Histories and Anthropologies of Development, Humanitarianism, and Human Rights,” Freie Universit?t Berlin, 15.11.2018-16.11.2018?

2018 “The Middle East in the 1980s: An Exploratory Workshop,” Freie Universit?t Berlin, 30.6.2018
Panels?

2021 “Archives of the Global South: Researching & Conceptualizing Anti-Imperial Internationalism,” Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Meeting, 23.6.2021?

2018 “New Approaches to the History of the United States and the Third World,” Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Meeting, June 23, 2018

2018 “Bids for Recognition: International Society and Third World Sovereignty,” Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Meeting, June 22, 2018?

2017 “The Origins of Global History: A Reappraisal,” (Toynbee Prize lecture, Jürgen Osterhammel), American Historical Association Annual Meeting, 6.1.2017

Cooperation/ Projects

Internal Funding Programs at the University of Regensburg

"UR Fellows"?Funding Program (Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations and Interdisciplinary Networking at the University of Regensburg, together with Dr. Dani Nassif for Project "Writing a “History Without Documents”:?Using Literary and Creative Sources to Write the History of Post-Conflict Societies), (2023-2024)
?"freiraum2023@ur"?Funding Program (Program for Development and Testing of Innovative Ideas in Digital Teaching for the Project "Researching with Digitized Archives and Producing Short Videos"), (2023)
Host for?Prof. Dr. Mia Fuller, the 1st?Berkeley-Regensburg Guest Professor (2023)(Press Release)
Outgoing Fellowship Program, Leibniz ScienceCampus "Europe and America in the Modern World" (University of Michigan), (2023) (Report)

Other Funding Programs

Funding from the Gerda and Hermann Weber Foundation (Gerda-und-Hermann-Weber-Stiftung) for the Planned 2027 Conference "Communist Regimes and the Global Economy Since the 1970s" (2024)
Funding from?Bavarian-Czech Academic Agency (BTHA) for International Workshop "Central Asia trans/regional: New Regional Studies Approaches" (2024)
Funding from?Point Alpha Research Institute for International Workshop?"Reform's Long Shadows:?Global Reactions to Perestroika and ‘Reform and Opening Up,’ 1978-1991"?(More Information)?(2023)

Resources for Students

Course Offerings for 2025 Summer Semester

In the 2025 summer semester, the Professorship for Transregional Cultures of Knowledge is offering the following courses:

Lecture at RECET (University of Vienna) on March 12, 2025

On March 12, 2025, Prof. Dr. Nunan will deliver a lecture entitled “Believing Globally: Islamist Internationalism Between the Cold War and Decolonization” at the Research Center for the History of Transformations in Vienna, Austria.

More information about the talk is available here.

Prof. Dr. Nunan Participates in Opening Event of Bavarian Academic Alliance for Security, Peace, and Conflict Studies

On January 13-14, 2025, Prof. Dr. Nunan attended the kick-off event of the Bavarian Academic Alliance for Security, Peace, and Conflict Studies [Bayerische Wissenschaftsallianz für Sicherheits-, Frieden- und Konflktforschung], a research initiative comprising several universities in Bavaria that encourages new, interdisciplinary research on topics related to today’s security challenges. Nunan is one of several professors and scholars from the University of Regensburg named as Fellows in the new initiative.

Prof. Dr. Nunan Delivers Lecture on "Islam and the Cold War" at Pierre du Bois Annual Conference 2025 (Graduate Institute, Geneva)

On January 20-21, 2025, Prof. Dr. Nunan attended the Pierre du Bois Annual Conference on “The Cold War in the Middle East and North Africa,” hosted at the Geneva Graduate Institute. There, Prof. Dr. Nunan delivered a talk on “Islam and the Cold War.” A recording of the talk is available here.

"Trumping Democracy? The USA and the World After the Presidential Elections"

On November 14, 2024, Prof. Dr. Nunan will be participating in a podium discussion with colleagues Volker Depkat (UR) and Cindy Wittke (iOS) about the upcoming American elections and their impact on American domestic politics and international politics. The event will take place at 19:00 in the Evangelisches Bildungswerk (Am ?lberg 2, 93047 Regensburg). Admission to the event is free; please note, however, that the event takes place in the German language.

Course Offerings for 2024-2025 Winter Semester

In the 2024-2025 winter semester, the Professorship for Transregional Cultures of Knowledge is offering the following courses:

Events
International Workshop "Zentralasien trans/regional"

On November 8-9, 2024, the Professorship for Transregional Cultures of Knowledge is hosting the international workshop "Zentralasien trans/regional." The workshop aims to bring together scholars based in Bavaria and the Czech Republic working on Central Asia broadly conceived (i.e. including Afghanistan and Xinjiang) to share current research projects and discuss further opportunities for collaboration. The workshop has been generously sponsored by the the Bavarian-Czech Academic Agency (BTHA).

Interested in attending the workshop? Please reach out to Prof. Dr. Timothy Nunan (timothy.nunan at ur.de) to register so that we know you plan on coming.

Events Series on American Conservatism

From October 24-26, 2024, the Professorship for Transregional Cultures of Knowledge welcomes Mr. Matthew Sitman (Commonweal Magazine) for a series of events on the past and present of American conservatism. The event series kicks off with a lecture on October 24, 2024, on the relationship between the right, the extreme right, and the Republican Party, followed by a brown bag lunch on the 2024 election. On October 25-26, 2024, Mr. Sitman and Prof. Dr. Nunan will co-teach a block seminar "What Is American Conservatism?" introducing students to important currents and schools of thought in the American conservative movement.?

Further details are available in the event poster. This event series has been generously sponsored by the Universit?tsstifung Hans Vielberth.

Lecture by Dr. Vassily Klimentov

On April 26, 2024, Professor Nunan will host Dr. Vassily Klimentov (SNSF Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Zürich) for a digital book talk on his new book?A Slow Reckoning:?The USSR, the Afghan Communists, and Islam (Cornell University Press, 2024). Dr. Klimentov's book talk will take place via Zoom from 14:45 - 16:30 (Central European Time) and is open to the wider public. If you are interested in joining, please register via this Zoom link.

Event Series on Islam in East Asia

From April 25-27, 2024, Prof. Dr. Kelly Hammond (University of Arkansas) will be a guest of the Professorship for Transregional Cultures of Knowledge. During her time in Regensburg, Professor Hammond will deliver a lecture on her current research on on ethnopolitics and state-building in China, participate in a lunch discussion with students on researcha and teaching area studies, and co-teach a block seminar "Regional Histories of the Cold War" with Professor Nunan.

More information can be found in the poster below.?This event series has been generously sponsored by the Universit?tsstifung Hans Vielberth.

International Workshop on Memory Culture and Archives in Lebanon and Iraq

On January 26-27, 2024, Prof. Dr. Nunan and Dr. Dani Nassif (University of Regensburg) organized the international workshop?"Memory, Archives, and Cultural Production in Contemporary Lebanon and Iraq." This event was made possible thanks to the generous support of the "UR Fellows" program of the University of Regensburg.

International Workshop on the Global History of Perestroika and Chinese Economic Reform

On October 5-7, 2024, Prof. Dr. Nunan hosted the international workshop?"Reform's Long Shadows: Global Reactions to Perestroika and 'Reform and Opening Up'" thanks to the support of the Point Alpha Research Institute (PARI). For more information about the workshop, please follow this link.

Lecture by Prof. Dr. Christopher Rea on Where Research Begins

On May 5, 2023, Prof. Dr. Nunan hosted Prof. Dr. Christopher Rea (University of British Columbia) for a talk on his and Prof. Dr. Tom Mullaney's book?Where Research Begins: Choosing a Research Project That Matters to You (and the World). This event was generously sponsored and funded by the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies.

Prof. Dr. Nunan Lecture at University of Connecticut

From March 13-14, 2023, Prof. Dr. Nunan was an invited Magnet Scholar at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute. There, he discussed his ongoing research on Shi'a Islamism with faculty at the University of Connecticut and held a lecture titled "Lighting a Candle for Khomeini: How the Human Rights Movement Transformed the Islamist Movement." A recording of this lecture is available online on YouTube.

Colloquium for Transregional History

In the 2022/23,?winter semester, Prof. Dr. Timothy Nunan organized a colloquium on transregional history featuring speakers from around the world as well as from Regensburg.