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Personal History

Michael Hau graduated from the University of Tübingen (Germany) with an M.A. in history and anthropology. He received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Iowa and spent two years as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. In 2005/2006, he returned to the Institute for three months to work on his research project about German sports and work sciences in the 1920's and 30's. He joined the School of Historical Studies in July 2002.

Current Research

He is working on a cultural history of performance (Leistung) in Weimar and Nazi Germany. The project explores the role of the sports and work sciences in bio-political debates about productivity and performance enhancement. His other research interests focus on the the history of meritocracy with a focus on meritocratic concepts in work and educational settings during the Twentieth century.

Major Publications

Books
The Cult of Health and Beauty in Germany. A Social History, 1890-1930. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).
Reviewed in: American Historical Review, British Journal for the History of Science. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Central European History, European History Quarterly, German History, German Studies Review, h-net, Historian, Historische Zeitschrift, History, Isis, Journal of European Studies, Journal of the History of Medicine and the Allied Sciences, Journal of Modern History, Journal of Social History and sehepunkte.

Book Chapters
"Beauty and Concepts of the Ideal", in A Cultural History of the Human Body: The Age of Empire, ed. Michael Sappol and Steve Rice (Oxford: Berg, forthcoming 2009).

"Asceticism and Pleasure in German Health Reform. Patients as Clients in Wilhelmine Sanatoria", in Beyond Pleasure: Cultures of Modern Asceticism, 1890-1960, eds. Leen van Molle, Kaat Wils, Evert Peeters (New York: Berghahn Books, forthcoming 2009).

"Body Culture," in: Europe since 1914. Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction Vol. 1, eds. John Merriman and Jay Winter (Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2006), pp. 386-390.

"The humane expert: The crisis of modern medicine during the Weimar republic," in: Experts in Science and Society, eds. Elke Kurz-Milcke and Gerd Gigerenzer (New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum, 2004), pp. 105-122.

"Körperbildung und sozialer Habitus. Soziale Bedeutungen von Körperlichkeit während des Kaiserreichs und der Weimarer Republik," in Wissenschaften und Wissenschaftspolitik. Interaktionen, Kontinuitäten und Bruchlinien vom späten Kaiserreich bis zur frühen Bundesrepublik/DDR, eds. Rüdiger vom Bruch and Brigitte Kaderas (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2002), pp. 125-141.

"Experten für Menschlichkeit? Ärztliche Berufsethik, Lebensreform und die Krise der Medizin in der Weimarer Republik," in Medizingeschichte und Medizinethik. Kontroversen und Begründungsansätze 1900–1950, eds. Andreas Frewer and Josef N. Neumann (Frankfurt/NewYork: Campus, 2001), pp. 124-142.

Together with Mitchell Ash: "Der normale Körper - seelisch erblickt," in Gesichter der Weimarer Republik. Eine physiognomische Kulturgeschichte, eds. Sander Gilman and Claudia Schmölders (Cologne: Dumont, 2000), pp. 12-31.

Journal Articles
"Sports in the Human Economy: 'Leibesübungen,' Medicine, Psychology, and Performance Enhancement in the Weimar Republic," in: Central European History 41, 3 (2008), pp. 381-412.
"The Holistic Gaze in German Medicine, 1890-1930," in: Bulletin of the History of Medicine 74, 3 (2000), pp. 495-524.
"Gender and Aesthetic Norms in Popular Hygienic Culture in Germany from 1900 to 1914," in: Social History of Medicine 12, 2 (1999), pp. 271-292.

Reviews
More than a dozen book reviews in: American Historical Review, German History, German Studies Review, h-soz-kult; Journal of the History of Medicine and the Allied Sciences, Journal of Social History, Medical History, modernism/modernity, sehepunkte, Social History and Social History of Medicine.

Areas of Research & Supervision

European and German history; history of medicine and the life sciences; history of the body; social and cultural history.

Teaching

HSY1112 - Nations at war 2
HSY2/3440 - The rise and fall of Nazi Germany
HSY2/3920 - Death and Disease
HSY4370 - Fantasies of the Flesh: The Body in History
HYM4/5370 - Fantasies of the Flesh: The Body in History
HSY4/5490 - Fascism, Nazism, and Racial and Social Utopias