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Winson Chu

  • Associate Professor, History
  • Associate Professor, Center for Jewish Studies

Education

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

Courses Taught

  • 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)

Teaching Interests

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

Research Interests

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

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\nCommendation, 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. New York: Berghahn Books. (2019): 129-148.
. “‘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 Ed. Chu, Winson. (2018): 35-56.
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. “"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. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag. (2017): 355-375.
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. “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. Osnabrück: Fibre Verlag. (2016): 279-292.
Chu, Winson. “Lodz/Łódź” Online-Lexikon zur Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa Oldenburg: Ossietzky Universität in Oldenburg. (2013).
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. 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. New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (2012): 239-258.
Chu, Winson. “The Geography of Germanness: Recentering German History in Interwar Poland” Bulletin of the German Historical Institute, The German Historical Institute 42. (2008): 95-104.
Chu, Winson. “‘Volksgemeinschaften unter sich’: German Minorities and Regionalism in Poland, 1918-39” German History from the Margins Ed. Gregor, Neil, Roemer, Nils, and Roseman, Mark. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. (2007): 104-126.
Chu, Winson. “Metropole der Minderheit: Die Deutschen in Lodz und Mittelpolen, 1918-1939” Die “Volksdeutschen” in Polen, Frankreich, Ungarn und der Tschechoslowakei. Mythos und Realität Ed. Kochanowski, Jerzy, and Sach, Maike. Osnabrück: Fibre. (2006): 95-111.