Research
Susanne Quitmann is a historian of the 19th and 20th centuries whose research spans social history, particularly the histories of childhood and youth, colonialism and migration, the history of ideas and environmental history. She is also deeply engaged with methodological questions about how historians research, interpret and write history.
Susanne earned her doctorate from LMU Munich with a dissertation on child migrants in the British Empire (1869–1970). Her study reconceptualised voice as an analytical tool for exploring the subjectivities of marginalised figures in history.
In her postdoctoral research, Susanne continues to explore the boundaries of historical research in a new context. Her current project examines the role of nature in shaping modernity as a cultural construct. Using the history of dendrochronology – the science of tree-ring analysis – as a heuristic, she explores how nature informed ideas about modern temporality. Tracing the development of dendrochronology and concepts of modern temporality from 1850s Texas to 20th-century Arizona, Germany and Sweden, her research seeks to highlight the dialogues and silences between Western scientists and colonised groups in the Global North regarding notions of time and nature. Conceptually, her project aims at integrating human-plant studies with the history of ideas to rethink plants as sources, objects and actors and to challenge Eurocentric understandings of the natural world. It also contributes to the conceptualisation of temporalities in the framework of global dis:connectivity.
Susanne has published on the history of childhood, the concept of voice and transnational legal history. She is co-founder and speaker of the Arbeitskreis Kindheitsgeschichte and co-editor of the book series Kindheits- und Jugendgeschichte / History of Childhood and Youth (transcript Verlag). She is also an active member of several research networks, including the DFG network The transnational history of attachment theory in post-war Europe and the International Standing Working Group In Search of the Migrant Child.
Have a look at Susanne’s research poster about her project.
Biography
Susanne Quitmann studied history, global history and political science at the University of Heidelberg, Royal Holloway University of London and Yale University. After completing her master’s degree in 2017, she joined LMU Munich as a research associate in modern history.
She earned her doctorate from LMU Munich in 2024 with a dissertation titled Reconceptualising Voice: An exploratory case study of British child migrants (1869–1970). Her research was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and by the National Archives of Australia / Australian Historical Association. Her dissertation received several distinctions: the Prize of the German Historical Institute London, the Society for the History of Children and Youth Dissertation Award and the German Association for British Studies Dissertation Award.
In spring 2025, Susanne was invited by Professor Pedro Ramos Pinto to join the DAAD Hub Cambridge at the University of Cambridge as a visiting researcher. She joined gd:c in autumn 2025 as a postdoctoral researcher and research coordinator for the temporalities focus area.
Selected Publications
Jur, Lena, Friederike Kind-Kovács, Susanne Quitmann, Julia Reus, and Martina Winkler (eds). Kindheitsgeschichte: Ein Handbuch. Bielefeld, transcript, [forthcoming, expected April 2026]. https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-6961-9/kindheitsgeschichte/.
Quitmann, Susanne. ‘George Green’s Voice: A Concept for Studying the History of Young People’, Journal of Contemporary History 60/2 (June 2024): 163–189. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220094241241061.
Quitmann, Susanne. ‘Voicing imperial order, identity, and resistance: The singing of British child migrants’, Ordinary Oralities: Everyday Voices in History, edited by Josephine Hoegaerts and Janice Schroeder. Berlin, DeGruyter Oldenbourg, 2023, 153–169. https://doi/10.1515/9783111079370-010/html.
Quitmann, Susanne. ‘Jugendstrafrechtsentwicklung in transnationaler Perspektive: Die zwei Transfernetzwerke zwischen dem Deutschem Reich und den USA (1871–1933)’, Wissenstransfer in globalgeschichtlicher Perspektive: Akteure, Institutionen, Medien (Beiträge zur Globalgeschichte 1), edited by Claudia Schnurmann and Margrit Schulte Beerbühl. Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag, 2022: 133–150.
Click here for Susanne’s CV, including a full list of publications.