Lecture at University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Buchanan Tower 1112) & Zoom | Speaker: Dorothee Brantz (Technische Universität Berlin)
Our 11th Gerda Henkel Lecture Tour features Dorothee Brantz, an urban environmental historian and director of the Center for Metropolitan Studies at Technische Universität Berlin. Her lecture "Urban Seasonalities: Time, Culture, and the Environment in Summer Resorts and Winter Cities around 1900 and Today", explores how climate, weather, and the seasons shaped urban life in the late 19th century compared to today, taking us from Canadian winter cities to Central European summer resorts (Sommerfrische).
Dorothee Brantz received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 2003. Her areas of research include transatlantic urban history, human-animal relations, and the social theory of time in urban studies. Currently, she is working on a book project about seasons in the city around 1900 and 2000. Her most recent publication on this topic is “Why Study the Seasons?” Journal of Urban History 51 (January 2025), 81-91.
Since 2018, the Pacific Office of the German Historical Institute Washington has organized these lecture tours in partnership with the Gerda Henkel Foundation, bringing German historians to the West Coast to share their latest research and engage with audiences in the United States and Canada.