Biography
Research Interests
Dr Richard Kirwan specialises in early modern European history with a focus on the German-speaking lands of the Holy Roman Empire. His research interests include the social and cultural history of early modern universities and the world of learning, early modern print culture, and Reformation history. Dr Kirwan's current project is a study of religious conversion, exile and migration among scholars in the Holy Roman Empire, c. 1555- c. 1648. This project has been funded via a Research Project Award from the Gerda Henkel Stiftung (2017-2020). Dr Kirwan has published on aspects of religious conversion, the history of universities, and print culture in journal articles and book chapters. Dr Kirwan's publications also include the monograph Empowerment and Representation at the University in Early Modern Germany: Helmstedt and Würzburg, 1576-1634 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2009), and the edited volumes Scholarly Self-Fashioning and Community in the Early Modern University (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), and Specialist Markets in the Early Modern Book World (Leiden: Brill, 2015).
Professional Activities
Award
- 2020 - Senior Fellow, Descartes Centre, University of Utrecht
- 2017 - Visiting Scholar, Seminar für Neuere Geschichte at the University of Tübingen
- 2017 - Gerda Henkel Stiftung Research Project Award
- 2015 - IRC New Foundations Award
- 2009 - Max Weber Fellowship, European University Insitute, Florence
- 2009 - DAAD Research Grant
- 2008 - IRCHSS Postdoctoral Fellowship
- 2006 - Trinity College Dublin Postgraduate Award
- 2004 - Grace Lawless Lee Award, Trinity College Dublin
- 2004 - Rolf and Ursula Schneider Stiftung Doctoral Fellowship
- 2002 - IRCHSS Postgraduate Scholarship
Committee
- International Advisory Board of 'War and the Supernatural in Early Modern Europe' ERC funded research project, War and the Supernatural in Early Modern Europe is a research project funded by the European Research Council and hosted by Queen's University Belfast. The P.I. is Dr Ian Campbell (QUB).
- Centre for Early Modern Studies, Limerick,
- Royal Irish Academy Historical Studies Committee,
Association
- Member, HistGeogUni A global research network on the historical geographies of the university
- Member, Early Modern Religious Dissents and Radicalism (EMoDiR ) Research Group
- Member, Verein für Reformationsgeschichte
- Member, German History Society
Other
- Formerly scholarly editor on Early European Books, a ProQuest database, with responsibility for scholarly and academic print. See http://www.proquest.com/products-services/databases/eeb.html. Project Completed.
Publications
Books
Empowerment and Representation at the University in Early Modern German: Helmstedt and Würzburg, 1576-1634
Kirwan, Richard
(2009)
Empowerment and Representation at the University in Early Modern German: Helmstedt and Würzburg, 1576-1634
Wiesbaden :
Harrassowitz
Book Chapters
Ephemeral No More: University Festival, Print and the Pull of Posterity
Kirwan, Richard
(2019)
Ephemeral No More: University Festival, Print and the Pull of Posterity
In Akademische Festkulturen vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart: Zwischen Inaugurationsfeier und Fachschaftsparty (eds.) Martin Kintzinger, Wolfgang Eric Wagner, Marian Füssel ;
Basel :
Schwabe
pp. 179-194
Function in Form: Single Sheet Items and the Utility of Cheap Print in the Early Modern German University
Richard Kirwan
(2017)
Function in Form: Single Sheet Items and the Utility of Cheap Print in the Early Modern German University
In Broadsheets. Single-sheet Publishing in the First Age of Print;
Leiden :
Brill
It's Who You Know: Scholarly Networks in Liddel's Helmstedt
Richard Kirwan
(2016)
It's Who You Know: Scholarly Networks in Liddel's Helmstedt
In Duncan Liddel (1561-1613): Networks of Polymathy and the Northern European Renaissance, Pietro Daniel Omodeo (ed.) in collaboration with Karin Friedrich,;
Leiden :
Brill
Introduction: The Risks, Rewards and Perils of Specialisation
Kirwan, R
(2015)
Introduction: The Risks, Rewards and Perils of Specialisation
In SPECIALIST MARKETS IN THE EARLY MODERN BOOK WORLD;
LEIDEN :
BRILL
pp. 1-13
DOI: 10.1163/9789004290228_002
Urban Space and Academic Identity in Early Modern Germany
Kirwan, Richard
(2014)
Urban Space and Academic Identity in Early Modern Germany
In Die Erschließung des Raumes: Konstruktion, Imagination und Darstellung von Räumen und Grenzen im Barockzeitalter ;
Wiesbaden :
Harrassowitz
Scholarly Self-Fashioning and the Cultural History of Universities
Kirwan, R
(2013)
Scholarly Self-Fashioning and the Cultural History of Universities
In Scholarly Self-Fashioning and Community in Early Modern Germany;
Farnham :
Ashgate
pp. 1-
From Individual to Archetype: Occasional Texts and the Performance of Scholarly Identity in Early Modern Germany
Kirwan, R
(2013)
From Individual to Archetype: Occasional Texts and the Performance of Scholarly Identity in Early Modern Germany
In Scholarly Self-Fashioning and Community in Early Modern Germany;
Farham :
Ashgate
pp. 79-102
University Ritual and the Construction of the Scholar
Kirwan, Richard; Robinson-Hammerstein, Helga
(2011)
University Ritual and the Construction of the Scholar
In Liber Amicorum Ditlev Tamm: Law, History and Culture ;
Copenhagen :
DJOFPublishing
The Paper Monument: University Histories and Institutional Prestige in Early Modern Germany
Kirwan, Richard
(2011)
The Paper Monument: University Histories and Institutional Prestige in Early Modern Germany
In Power in History: From the Medieval to the Post-Modern World ;
Dublin :
Irish Academic Press
Akademische Repräsentationspraktiken und der Umgang mit dem Öffentlichkeitsbild der Institution
Kirwan, Richard
(2010)
Akademische Repräsentationspraktiken und der Umgang mit dem Öffentlichkeitsbild der Institution
In Das Athen der Welfen: Die Reformuniversität Helmstedt 1576-1810 ;
Wiesbaden :
Harrassowitz
The Appeal to Tradition in the Ceremonial Prescriptions of the Statutes of Helmstedt, 1576'
Kirwan, Richard
(2007)
The Appeal to Tradition in the Ceremonial Prescriptions of the Statutes of Helmstedt, 1576'
In Gli statuti universitari: tradizione dei testi e valenze politiche ;
Bologna :
CLUEB
Edited Books
Specialist Markets in the Early Modern Book World
(2015)
Specialist Markets in the Early Modern Book World
Kirwan, Richard; Mullins, Sophie(Ed.)
Leiden :
Brill
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004290228
Scholarly Self-Fashining and Community in the Early Modern University
(2013)
Scholarly Self-Fashining and Community in the Early Modern University
Kirwan, Richard(Ed.)
Farnham :
Ashgate
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315607719
Peer Reviewed Journals
The Conversion of Jacob Reihing: Academic Controversy and the Professorial Ideal in Confessional Germany
Kirwan, R
(2018)
The Conversion of Jacob Reihing: Academic Controversy and the Professorial Ideal in Confessional Germany
In German History;
pp. 1-20
DOI: 10.1093/gerhis/ghx125
Scholarly Reputations and Institutional Prestige: The Fashioning of the Public Image of the University of Helmstedt, 15761680
Kirwan, Richard
(2011)
Scholarly Reputations and Institutional Prestige: The Fashioning of the Public Image of the University of Helmstedt, 15761680
In History of Universities;
Book Reviews
Contested Reformations in the University of Cambridge, 15351584, by Ceri Law he in English Historical Review, 135/574 (June 2020)
Richard Kirwan
(2020)
Contested Reformations in the University of Cambridge, 15351584, by Ceri Law he in English Historical Review, 135/574 (June 2020)
Oxford :
Oxford UP
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/ceaa093
"Daum's boys: schools and the republic of letters in early modern Germany, by Alan Ross." History of Education, 46(5), pp. 703704
Richard Kirwan
(2017)
"Daum's boys: schools and the republic of letters in early modern Germany, by Alan Ross." History of Education, 46(5), pp. 703704
In History of Education;
DOI: DOI: 10.1080/0046760X.2017.1302004
Maximilian Schuh, Aneignungen des Humanismus. Institutionelle und individuelle Praktiken an der Universität Ingolstadt im 15. Jahrhundert (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2013), reviewed in History of Universities, XXIX / 1 (2016)
Richard Kirwan
(2016)
Maximilian Schuh, Aneignungen des Humanismus. Institutionelle und individuelle Praktiken an der Universität Ingolstadt im 15. Jahrhundert (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2013), reviewed in History of Universities, XXIX / 1 (2016)
Women and the Counter-Reformation in Early Modern Munster
Kirwan, R
(2016)
Women and the Counter-Reformation in Early Modern Munster
In History;
pp. 127-128
Review of Campi, Emidio, Simone De Angelis, Anja-Silvia Goeing, and Anthony T. Grafton (eds.). Scholarly Knowledge: Textbooks in Early Modern Europe (Geneva, 2008)
Kirwan, Richard
(2011)
Review of Campi, Emidio, Simone De Angelis, Anja-Silvia Goeing, and Anthony T. Grafton (eds.). Scholarly Knowledge: Textbooks in Early Modern Europe (Geneva, 2008)
Review of Thomas Bach, Jonas Maatsch and Ulrich Rasche (eds.), Gelehrte' Wissenschaft. Das Vorlesungsprogramm der Universität Jena um 1800 (Stuttgart, 2008)
Kirwan, Richard
(2010)
Review of Thomas Bach, Jonas Maatsch and Ulrich Rasche (eds.), Gelehrte' Wissenschaft. Das Vorlesungsprogramm der Universität Jena um 1800 (Stuttgart, 2008)
Review of Joachim Bauer, Andreas Klinger, et al. (eds.), Die Universität Jena in der Frühen Neuzeit (Heidelberg, 2008)
Kirwan, Richard
(2010)
Review of Joachim Bauer, Andreas Klinger, et al. (eds.), Die Universität Jena in der Frühen Neuzeit (Heidelberg, 2008)
Review of Stefanie Knöll, Creating Academic Communities: Funeral Monuments to Professors at Oxford, Leiden and Tübingen 1580-1700 (Haren, 2003)
Kirwan, Richard
(2008)
Review of Stefanie Knöll, Creating Academic Communities: Funeral Monuments to Professors at Oxford, Leiden and Tübingen 1580-1700 (Haren, 2003)
Review of Neil Kenny, The Uses of Curiosity in Early Modern France and Germany (Oxford, 2004)
Kirwan, Richard
(2005)
Review of Neil Kenny, The Uses of Curiosity in Early Modern France and Germany (Oxford, 2004)
Electronic Articles
An Introduction to Early Modern Scholarly and Academic Print
Richard Kirwan
(2019)
An Introduction to Early Modern Scholarly and Academic Print
Proquest
pp. 1-14
Working Papers
Space, Power, and the University in Early Modern Germany
Kirwan, Richard
(2010)
Space, Power, and the University in Early Modern Germany
Translations
English summary of Volker Seresse, Politische Normen in Kleve-Mark während des 17. Jahrhunderts. Argumentationsgeschichtlich und herrschaftstheoretische Zugänge zur politischen Kultur der frühen Neuzeit
Kirwan, Richard
(2005)
English summary of Volker Seresse, Politische Normen in Kleve-Mark während des 17. Jahrhunderts. Argumentationsgeschichtlich und herrschaftstheoretische Zugänge zur politischen Kultur der frühen Neuzeit