Winson Chu

Associate Professor, History

Degree(s)

PhD, History, University of California, Berkeley, 2006
MA, History, University of California, Berkeley, 1999
BA, History, University of California, San Diego, 1994

Research Interests

Modern Central Europe
German-Polish borderlands
Empires, national minorities, diasporas

Teaching Areas

German politics and societies
Social and cultural impact of war
Ethnic cleansing in Europe

Courses Offered

Hist 248 - The First World War
Hist 249 - The Second World War in Europe
Hist 293 - Seminar on Historical Method, Theory, and Approach
Hist 363 - Germany – Hitler and the Nazi Dictatorship
Hist 371 - Topics in European History (Topic: German Politics, Societies and Cultures Since 1945)
Hist 371 - Topics in European History (Topic: The Habsburg Empire)
Hist 840 - Colloquium on Global History (Topic: Nationhood)
Hist 850 - Colloquium on European History (Topic: Ethnic Cleansings in the Twentieth Century)
Hist 850 - Colloquium on European History (Topic: Nationhood and Exceptionalism)
Hist 940 - Seminar on Global History (Topic: Transnational Total War)

Special Honors

Office of Research / UWM Foundation Research Award, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2018. Recognition for excellence in research.

Faculty Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2017–18. Recognition for excellence in teaching.

German History Article Prize for "A Sonderweg through Eastern Europe?," German History Society, UK, 2013

Commendation, The Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History for The German Minority in Interwar Poland, The Wiener Library, London, 2012

Fritz Stern Dissertation Prize, Friends of the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC, for best dissertation in modern German history (co-winner), 2007

James H. Kettner Graduate Prize, UC Berkeley Department of History, for best dissertation, 2007

Selected Publications

Chu, Winson. “'Warschau erhebt sich': The 1944 Warsaw Uprising and the Nationalization of European Identity in the Berlin Republic.” Views of Violence: Representing the Second World War in German and European Museums and Memorials. Ed. Jaeger, Stephan, and Echternkamp, Jörg. Berghahn Books, (2019): 129-148.

Chu, Winson. “Review Essay: Ethnic Cleansing and Nationalization in the German-Polish and German-Czech Borderlands.” German Studies Review 41.1 (2018): 143-152.

Chu, Winson, ed. “‘Wir sind keine Deutschen nur dem Volke nach’: Multiethnic Pasts and Ethnic Germans in the German Criminal Police in Lodz during the Second World War.” Zeitschrift für Genozidforschung 16.1 (2018): 35-56.

Chu, Winson. “From Łódź to Litzmannstadt: German Pasts and Holocaust Sites in Post-Communist Poland.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 31.2 (2017): 240-267.

Chu, Winson. “'Something has destroyed my memory': Stalingrad and Karl Dedecius’s Second World War.” Imaginations and Configurations of Polish Society: From the Middle Ages through the 20th Century. Ed. Kleinmann, Yvonne, Heyde, Jürgen, Hüchtker, Dietlind, Kałwa, Dobrochna, Nalewajko-Kulikov, Joanna, Steffen, Katrin, and Wiślicz, Tomasz. Wallstein Verlag, (2017): 355-375.

Chu, Winson. “Beyond Fantasy: Reexamining Colonial Legacies in the German-Polish Borderlands.” Zwischen Geschlecht und Nation. Interdependenzen und Interaktionen in der multiethnischen Gesellschaft Polens im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Ed. Barelkowski, Matthias, Kraft, Claudia, and Röskau-Rydel, Isabel. Fibre Verlag, (2016): 279-292.

Chu, Winson, Kauffman, Jesse, and Meng, Michael. “A Sonderweg through Eastern Europe? The Varieties of German Rule in Poland during the Two World Wars.” German History 31.3 (2013): 318-344.

Chu, Winson. “Lodz/Łódź.” Online-Lexikon zur Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa. Ossietzky Universität in Oldenburg, (2013).

Chu, Winson. The German Minority in Interwar Poland. Cambridge Universty Press, 2012: (Paperback edition, 2014).

Chu, Winson. “The ‘Lodzermensch’: From Cultural Contamination to Marketable Multiculturalism.” Germany, Poland and Postmemorial Relations: In Search of a Livable Past. Ed. Kopp, Kristin, and Niżyńska, Joanna. Palgrave Macmillan, (2012): 239-258.