Alexander Schmidt

Forthcoming and in progress

Might to Right: Enlightenment Natural Law and Historicist Realism in German Political Thought, 1700–1950. Forthcoming with the University of Pennsylvania Press (2026).

“How did the Enlightenment Rights of Man become Christian? Protestant Professors and the Foundations of Modern International Law” (17,500 words). Forthcoming in The Journal of Modern History (2027).

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Academic Positions

2026-recent Visiting Professor of the History of Political Thought, University of Tartu, Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, Tartu, Estonia

2021-2026: Visiting Associate Professor of European Studies, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

2020: Research Fellow, SFB/TRR 294 “Strukturwandel des Eigentums”, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany 

2017-2020: Akademischer Rat, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany

2009-2017: Juniorprofessor for Intellectual History, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany

2004-2008: Research fellow, Collaborative Research Centre 482 “The Weimar-Jena phenomenon: Culture around 1800”, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany

2001-2002: Research Fellow, Department of Early Modern History, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany

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Fellowships, Awards (Selection)

2020 – 2026 North America Visiting Professorship, offered by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

2017 – 2018 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Summer Seminar, “Invisible Hands: The Enlightenment Science of Society,” University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

2015 – 2016 Feodor-Lynen-Fellowship for Experienced Researchers, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

2011 Visiting-Research-Fellow at Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) and Wolfson College, Cambridge

2009 Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

2003 Postgraduate studies, Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, UK

2002 – 2004 Scholarship for doctoral students offered by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German National Academic Foundation)

1998 – 2000 Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German National Academic Foundation)

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Academic Service

• German Academic Exchange Service scholarships 
• Co-convenor of Central European Studies Seminar, Vanderbilt University Fall 2021 – present
• Co-convenor of Central European Studies Webinar, Vanderbilt University 2021
• Co-convenor of research seminar at the Research Centre “Laboratory Enlightenment”, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, 2010 – 2018
• Co-convenor of the Modern History Research Seminar Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, 2019 – 20
• Peer-reviewer for: Modern Intellectual History, American Political Science Review, History of Political Though, The Historical Journal, Cambridge University Press, Princeton University Press, Oxford Studies in the Enlightenment
• German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft – DFG)
• Peer-reviewer for research fellowships and grants: Swiss National Fund – SNF, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes), JRF applicants King’s College Cambridge