Alexandra Raptis

Professional Career

Since March 2023
Research Assistant at the Chair for the History of Education of Prof. Dr. Sylvia Kesper-Biermann at the Faculty of Education (EW1) of the University of Hamburg

April 2022–December 2022
Research Assistant at the Chair of Economic and Social History of Prof. Dr. Katja Patzel-Mattern at the Department of History of the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg

October 2019–March 2022
Student Assistant at the chair of Medieval History of Prof. Dr. Nikolas Jaspert at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg

March 2020–March 2022
Student Assistant at the Career Service of the Department of History of the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg

October 2018–September 2019
Student Assistant (tutorial) for the Seminar of Dr. Kilian Schultes of the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg

February 2018–September 2017
Student Assistant at the Heidelberg Children's University in the field of history, under the direction of Dr. Susanne Hohler

June 2017–September 2017
Student Assistant to Dr. Susann Liebich in the Cluster of Excellence Asia and Europe at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg

Academic Training

2019–2022
Master of Arts History at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg

Master's thesis topic:
„Kommt der Reisende aber nach Hause und findet er seine Ansichtpostkarten wohlgeordnet […].“ ¹ Die Sammlung Förtmeyer. Eine Objektbiographie 
¹Stengel & Co: Über das Sammeln von Ansichtkarten, in: Centralblatt für Ansichtkarten-Sammler 2/8 (1899), S. 94.

2015–2019
Bachelor of Arts with a major in History and a minor in Political Science at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg

Bachelor thesis topic:
‚Pantoffelhelden, Mannweiber und verkaffte Soldaten‘. Soziales Geschlecht, die Gegner der Frauenrechtsbewegung und kolonialer Rassismus um 1900

Alexandra Raptis is a historian and her Phd-project deals with the natural history collecting practice of German Teachers in the African colonies of the German Empire. The collecting of specimens was a crucial part of creating and teaching science in the long 19th century. As the production and transfer of knowledge were intertwined with the structures, logics and personnel of colonialism, natural history collections are to be considered in questions of provenance and colonial collection context. Teachers and their students in the African colonies were encouraged to take part in colonial collection networks and taught to interact with their environment in a specific way. This dissertation aims to analyse the networks, in which they operated and the different ways in which they contributed to the amassing of collections and knowledge in the colonies and “at home”. A key question regards the role of local actors, i.e., that of African teachers, students, and individuals, in the production of knowledge. The work contributes to the history of knowledge, collecting, materiality of objects, provenance, agency, education as well as the networks of colonialism and imperialism.

• Colonialism
• History of Knowledge
• Object History
• History of Collecting
• History of Education

Winter Semester 2024/25
Seminar(s): Collecting and collections from an educational, knowledge and global history perspective

Winter Semester 2023/24
Seminar(s): Colonial Eduaction in the 19th Century

Winter Semester 2022/23
Workshop Course: Scientific Reading
Course at the History Department of the Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg in the wake of the funds provided by the state of Baden-Württemberg to mitigate pandemic-related learning deficits.

Summer Semester 2022
Workshop Course: Scientific Reading
Course at the History Department of the Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg in the wake of the funds provided by the state of Baden-Württemberg to mitigate pandemic-related learning deficits.

Raptis, Alexandra (12.09.2024): “Mass-produced, dispersed, and always in motion, it was the quintessential traveller of the modern age.” – Reflections on Visual Seriality, Global (Colonial) Entanglements and Archival responsibility in Private Postcard Collections, 'Shadow Archives: Unveiling Global Entanglements in Visual Records', University of Bern, 12.-13.09.2024.

Raptis, Alexandra (08.06.2024): The Role of Teachers in Establishing Natural History Knowledge in the African Colonies of the German Kaiserreich, History of Education Doctoral Summer School 2024, Aarhus University, Kopenhagen, 06.-08.06.2024.

Raptis, Alexandra (13.05.2024): „Kommt der Reisende aber nach Hause und findet er seine Ansichtpostkarten wohlgeordnet […]“. Die Sammlung Förtmeyer, Koloniale Bilderwelten – 6. Jahrestagung des Forums BildDruckPapier, Museum der Arbeit, 12.-14.5.2024.

Raptis, Alexandra (04.04.2024): Die Rolle von Lehrkräften und ihren Schüler*innen bei der Etablierung naturhistorischen Wissens aus den deutschen afrikanischen Kolonien, 8. Zürcher Werkstatt Historische Bildungsforschung, Universität Zürich,  04.-05.04.2024.

• International Standing Conference for the History of Education