Profile

Thorben Pelzer

Thorben Pelzer

Research Fellow

Gesellschaft und Kultur des modernen China
Institutsgebäude
Schillerstraße 6, Room S 319
04109 Leipzig

Phone: +49 341 97-37158
Fax: +49 341 97-37159


Thorben Pelzer

Thorben Pelzer

Research Fellow

Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe)
Strohsackpassage
Nikolaistraße 10, Room 5.16
04109 Leipzig

Phone: +49 341 97-37764


Website

Abstract

Since September 2017, Thorben Pelzer holds the position of university lecturer for Society and Culture of Modern China at Leipzig University. He graduated in Chinese Studies, Japanese Studies, and East Asia Studies at Ruhr-University Bochum. Further, he studied at Osaka University, at Tongji University in Shanghai, and at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei. He is an alumni of the German Merit Foundation. As a social and cultural historian of the Republican period, he currently researches Chinese engineers who studied in the USA.

Professional career

  • since 01/2020
    Researcher, Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1199 "Processes of Spatialization", Leipzig
  • since 04/2019
    EACS 2020/2021 Conference Coordinator
  • since 09/2017
    University lecturer, Society and Culture of Modern China, Leipzig
  • 08/2018 - 09/2018
    Research stay at MIT, including research at Harvard, Yale, Columbia archives
  • 07/2018 - 08/2018
    Invited guest researcher, Renmin University, Beijing
  • 05/2017 - 08/2017
    Freelance, German as a Second Language, Bochum
  • 02/2015 - 03/2017
    Research assistant, Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, Essen
  • 03/2016 - 06/2016
    Full time internship, German Consulate General, Shanghai
  • 10/2012 - 09/2013
    Student assistant, Section for Chinese History & Philosophy, Bochum

Education

  • since 04/2018
    PhD Candidate, Graduate School Global and Area Studies, Leipzig
  • 04/2015 - 03/2017
    M.A. East Asia Studies, Bochum
  • 10/2011 - 04/2015
    B.A. Sinology & Japanology, Bochum
  • 09/2016 - 02/2017
    Exchange semester, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei
  • 02/2014 - 07/2014
    Exchange semester, Tongji University, Shanghai
  • 09/2013 - 02/2014
    Exchange semester, Osaka University, Japan
  • 08/2012 - 10/2012
    Summer school, Tongji University, Shanghai
  • Early Twentieth Century (Late Qing, Beijing, and Nanjing Republics)
  • Engineering and Technocratic Cultures
  • Overseas Chinese Education, Exchanges, and Transculturalities
  • Current research on US-educated Chinese engineers
  • Chinese Engineers and their Spatial Imaginations: Architects of an Interconnected Nation, 1906–1937
    Kaske, Elisabeth
    Duration: 01/2020 - 12/2023
    Funded by: DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
    Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe); Ostasiatisches Institut; SFB 1199: Verräumlichungsprozesse unter Globalisierungsbedingungen
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Thorben Pelzer teaches historical and contemporary Chinese societies and cultures. He focuses on breaking down stereotypes and cultural essentialisms by recognizing the diversity of Chinese traditions. One link is the acquisition and practice of scientific thought and form. In his seminars he focuses on new teaching methods such as CRS (Kahoot), workshops (world café) and Flipped Classrooms (transfer tasks). Together with Merle Schatz, he received the LaborUni grant from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in 2018.

  • Sinophone Identities and Localist Activism in Hong Kong 2019

    Summer term 2020

  • Models and Methods of Area Studies and Chinese Studies

    Every winter term

    Receiver of the teaching project grant StiL LaborUni #8

  • Chinese Societies [after 1949]

    Summer term 2018