Dr David Motadel

Research Interests

David Motadel is an Assistant Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He works on the history of modern Europe and Europe’s relations with the wider world.

He is the author of a book on the history of Muslims under German rule in the Second World War (Harvard University Press, 2014), ranging from North Africa and the Balkans to the Caucasus and the Crimea, and the editor of a volume on Islam in the European empires (Oxford University Press, 2014). His articles have been published in a number of journals, including Past and Present, the Journal of Contemporary History, and the Historical Journal.

Biography

David Motadel studied history in Germany, Switzerland, and England. He completed his MPhil (2006) and PhD (2010) in History at the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Scholar. He subsequently took up a Research Fellowship in History at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge (2010-15). Dr. Motadel has held visiting and research positions at Harvard (2007-8), Yale (2009-10), Oxford (2012-13), and Edinburgh (2015-16). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Prizes

• Fraenkel Prize, 2014
• Walter Laqueur Prize, 2014
• Prince Consort Prize and Seeley Medal of the University of Cambridge, 2011
• Doctoral Dissertation Prize of the British International History Group, 2011
• Doctoral Dissertation Prize of the German Historical Institute London, 2011
• Essay Prize of the German History Society and the Royal Historical Society, 2007

Media

David Motadel regularly writes on history and current affairs for newspapers and magazines. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Times Literary Supplement, Literary Review, and The London Review of Books, among others. From 2005 to 2010, he acted as an advisor on international affairs for Der Spiegel.

Dr David Motadel teaches the following courses:

At undergraduate level:

HY113: From Empire to Independence: The Extra-European World in the Twentieth Century (taught jointly with other members of the Department)

HY116: International History since 1890 (taught jointly with other members of the Department)

HY300: Dissertation Workshop

HY322: Nazi Germany’s War: Violence and Occupation in Europe, 1939-1945

At masters level:

HY471: European Empires and Global Conflict, 1935-1948

Books

• Islam and Nazi Germany’s War (Harvard University Press, 2014).
• Islam and the European Empires (ed.) (Oxford University Press, 2014).

Journal Articles

• Qajar Shahs in Imperial Germany, Past and Present 213, 1 (2011), 191-235. (Awarded the Essay Prize of the German History Society and the Royal Historical Society).
• The German Other: Shah Nasir al-Din’s Perceptions of Difference and Gender during his Visits to Germany, 1873-1889, Iranian Studies 44, 4 (2011), 563-579.
• Islam and the European Empires: Historiographical Essay, Historical Journal 55, 3 (2012), 831-856.
• Islam and Germany’s War in the Soviet Borderlands, 1941-1945, Journal of Contemporary History 48, 4 (2013), 784-820. (Awarded the Walter Laqueur Prize).
• The ‘Muslim Question’ in Hitler’s Balkans, Historical Journal 56, 4 (2013), 1007-1039.

Book Chapters (Selection)

• Islamic Revolutionaries and the End of Empire, in Martin Thomas and Andrew S. Thompson (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the End of Empires (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming in 2017).
• The Muslim World in the Second World War, in Richard Bosworth and Joe Maiolo (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Second World War, Vol. 2: Politics and Ideology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 605-627.
• Veiled Survivors: Jews, Roma, and Muslims in the Years of the Holocaust, in Nikolaus Wachsmann and Jan Rüger (eds.), Rewriting German History (Sir Richard J. Evans Festschrift) (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 288-305.
• The Making of Muslim Communities in Western Europe, 1914-1939, in Umar Ryad and Götz Nordbruch (eds.), Transnational Islam in Interwar Europe: Muslim Activists and Thinkers (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 13-43.
• Iran and the Aryan Myth, in Ali M. Ansari (ed.), Perceptions of Iran: History, Myths and Nationalism from Medieval Persia to the Islamic Republic (London: I.B. Tauris, 2013), 119-145.

Journalism, 2010-16 (Selection)

• Waves of Authoritarianism, History Today (forthcoming, 2016).
• Academics of Violence, Times Literary Supplement 5879 (4 December 2015), 10-11.
• Patrons of Faith, The New York Times (24 May 2015), SR 6.
• Berlin to Bombay, Review of ‘Age of Entanglement: German and Indian Intellectuals across Empire’ by Kris Manjapra, Literary Review 429 (1 March 2015), 29-30.
• Ancestors of the Jihadist State, The New York Times (24 September 2014), A 31.
• Broken Idols, Review of ‘The Politics of Iconoclasm: Religion, Violence and the Culture of Image-Breaking in Christianity and Islam’ by James Noyes, Times Literary Supplement 5804 (27 June 2014), 25.
• Shortcuts (The Crimean Tatars), The London Review of Books 36, 8 (17 April 2014), 23.
• India’s Enemy’s Enemy, Review of ‘His Majesty’s Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India’s Struggle against Empire’ by Sugata Bose, Times Literary Supplement 5682 (24 February 2012), 27.
• Waves of Revolution, History Today 61, 4 (2011), 3-4.
• Shattering Empires: The Clash and Collapse of the Ottoman and Russian Empires 1908-1918 by Michael A. Reynolds, Times Literary Supplement 5639 (29 April 2011), 27.
• The End in Iran, Review of ‘Apocalyptic Islam and Iranian Shi’ism’ by Abbas Amanat, Times Literary Supplement 5595 (25 June 2010), 32.