Birgit Tremml Werner

Birgit Tremml-Werner earned her Mag. phil. and Dr. phil. degrees in History (with a minor in Japanese Studies) from the University of Vienna. From 2013-2015 she spent two years at the University of Tokyo, among other things revising her dissertation for publication (Spain, China, and Japan in Manila, 1571-1644, Amsterdam University Press, 2015).

Before joining Linnaeus University she worked and taught as postdoctoral research associate in the HERA collective project ‘East Asian Uses of the European Past’ at the Chair for Global History at the University of Zurich (2016-2019). She was visiting professor (Professurvertretung) at the University of Vienna.

Her teaching mainly deals with the diplomatic, social and cultural history of East and Southeast Asia before 1900. Her extensive research experience in Japan, China, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and the US enables her to grasp a more complete picture of concurrent topics within the context of distinct research traditions.

Since 2019, Birgit Tremml-Werner co-hosts a global history podcast called 15past15: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/15past15-podcast-series/id1449706934

Teaching

At Linnaeus University I teach in the Master Programme Colonial and Postcolonial Studies. I have been teaching numerous courses on theories, methods and research problems in global history at both the undergraduate and graduate levels for more than ten years. I like to encourage my students to search for patterns and connections whilst both challenging and remaining true to the established methods of historical research.

During the winter term 2019/20 I was appointed a full-time teaching lectureship (Vertretungsprofessur) for pre-modern economic history from a global perspective at the University of Vienna. In addition, I have supervised bachelor and master theses in the field of either Japanese and global history in Vienna and Zurich.

I supervise and examine BA/MA theses and dissertation projects on subjects related to global history and postcolonial studies. I particularly welcome proposals in the fields of Japanese history, Southeast Asian maritime relations, colonial encounters, diplomatic history and global intellectual history.

My research groups

My ongoing research projects

Publications

Article in journal (Refereed)

Jenco, L., Tremml-Werner, B. (2021). Historiography of the Other : Global History and the Indigenous Pasts of Taiwan. Inetrnational Journal of Taiwan Studies. 4 (2). 218-247.
Status: Published
Hellman, L., Tremml-Werner, B. (2021). Translation in Action : Global Intellectual History and Early Modern Diplomacy. Journal of the History of Ideas. 82 (3). 453-467.
Status: Published
Tremml-Werner, B. (2021). Narrating Japan's early modern southern expansion. The Historical Journal. 64 (1). 139-161.
Status: Published
Tremml-Werner, B. (2021). A Question of Political Correctness : Translating Friendship across Time and Space. Journal of the History of Ideas. 82 (3). 503-520.
Status: Published
Tremml-Werner, B., Hellman, L. (2020). Merely “ad hoc” diplomacy? A global historical comparison of early modern Japanese–Spanish and Qing-Russian foreign relations. Diplomatica. A Journal of Diplomacy and Society. 2 (1). 57-78.
Status: Published
Tremml-Werner, B., Hellman, L., Van Meersbergen, G. (2020). Introduction : Gift and Tribute in Early Modern Diplomacy. Diplomatica. 2 (2). 185-200.
Status: Published
Tremml-Werner, B., Goetze, D. (2019). A Multitude of Actors in Early Modern Diplomacy. Journal of Early Modern History. 23 (5). 407-422.
Status: Published
Tremml-Werner, B. (2017). Marginal Players and Intra-network Connections : New Perspectives on the Manila Trade, c. 1640-1780. Journal of Social Sciences and Philosophy. 29 (4). 599-626.
Status: Published

Book (Refereed)

Tremml-Werner, B. (2015). Spain, China and Japan in Manila, 1571-1644 : local comparisons and global connections. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press.

Chapter in book (Refereed)

Tremml-Werner, B. (2021). Persistent Piracy in Philippine Waters : Metropolitan Discourses about Chinese, Dutch, Moro, and Japanese Coastal Threats, 1570-1800. Piracy in World History. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press. 199-223.
Tremml-Werner, B. (2020). The Global and the Local in Early Modern Manila’s Communication Spaces. Philippine Confluence : Iberian, Chinese and Islamic Currents, C. 1500-1800. Leiden, Leiden University Press. 191-216.
Tremml-Werner, B. (2020). Migrant Agencies in the Early Modern Manila Bay. Migrants and the Making of the Urban-Maritime World Agency and Mobility in Port Cities, c. 1570–1940. New York, Routledge. 19-43.
Tremml-Werner, B. (2016). Friend or foe? Intercultural diplomacy between Momoyama Japan and the Spanish Philippines in the 1590s. Sea rovers, silver, and samurai : maritime East Asia in global history, 1550–1700. Honolulu, University of Hawai'i Press. 65-85.

Chapter in book (Other academic)

Tremml-Werner, B. (2018). Agentes dobles en el Japón de la edad moderna. El espionaje ecónomico y religioso de los visitantes hispanos. ¿Si fuera cierto? : Espías y agentes en la frontera (siglos XVI-XVII). Alcalá de Henares, Publicaciones Universidad de Alcalá (UAH). 143-164.
Tremml-Werner, B. (2017). Zwangsumsiedlungen und »Wirtschaftsflüchtlinge« im und aus dem Chinesischen Kaiserreich. Erzwungene Exile : Umsiedlung und Vertreibung in der Vormoderne (500 bis 1850). Frankfurt am Main, Campus Verlag. 177-196.

Article, book review (Other academic)

Tremml-Werner, B. (2022). Book Review: The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire by Henrietta Harrison. International Journal of Maritime History. Sage Publications. 34 (3). 514-516.
Status: Published