Biography

Professor of Global and Colonial History (19th and 20th centuries)

Corinna R. Unger is Professor of Global and Colonial History (19th and 20th centuries) at the Department of History and Civilisation of the European University Institute (EUI). She also serves as the Academic Coordinator of CIVICA’s Work Package 5: A European School for the Training for Early Stage Researchers. Together with Professor Joanne Scott, she co-directs the interdisciplinary research Cluster Environmental Challenges and Climate Change Governance.

Before joining the EUI, she was Associate Professor of Modern European History at Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, and Research Fellow at the German Historical Institute Washington, DC, USA. She received her PhD from the University of Freiburg, Germany, in 2005.

Her research in recent years has focused on the history of development and decolonization; on the history of international organizations; and on the history of the social sciences. Among her recent publications are International Development: A Postwar History (London: Bloomsbury, 2018) and “Development Projections: The World Bank in Calcutta in the 1970s,” Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development 11.1 (2020): 84-100.

Supervisees

• Armel Campagne
• Bas Rensen
• Bastiaan Nugteren
• Carlos Jorge Martins
• Dario Willi
• Fotios Papadopoulos
• Giovanni Tonolo
• Guus Wieman
• Jonas Eide
• Michelle Graabek
• Pelle Van Dijk
• Rebecca Orr
• Sandra Ricker

Fields of expertise

• Europe in the world
• Global history
• Empires
• Colonialism
• History of science
• Environmental history
• 20th century (Twentieth century)
• Political history
• Transnational history
• Globalisation
• International history
• European integration
• Decolonisation
• Cold War
• Modern history

Recent research output

• UNGER, Corinna R. (2020), Development projections : the World Bank in Calcutta in the 1970s, Article

• UNGER, Corinna R. (2020), Making science European : towards a history of the European science foundation, Article

• CLAVIN, Patricia; NEUMAN, Michaël; NITZSCHKE, Heiko; RODOGNO, Davide (2018), Solidarity in development? : historical experiences and present concerns with economic stability and political security across borders, Video

• UNGER, Corinna R. (2018), The decolonization of development : rural development in India before and after 1947, Contribution to book

• UNGER, Corinna R. (2019), International organizations and rural development : the FAO perspective, Article

• UNGER, Corinna R. (2018), Postwar European development aid : defined by decolonization, the Cold War, and European integration?, Contribution to book