Yair Mintzker, Ph.D.
History Department  Princeton University  Dickinson Hall, G-22  Princeton, NJ 08544
Phone: (609) 258-8828  E-Mail: [email protected]
Employment
• Associate Professor of History, Princeton University
2015-present
• Assistant Professor of History, Princeton University
2009-2015
Education
• Ph.D., History, Stanford University
2009
• M.A., History, Tel-Aviv University
2003
Selected Honors and Fellowships
• Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
• Class of 1942 University Preceptor, Princeton University
• Andrew Mellon Fellowship for Assistant Professors, Institute for
Advanced Study, Princeton
• Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin (declined)
2013-14
2012-2015
2011-12
2011-12
• The Fritz Stern Prize for the best dissertation in German History,
German Historical Institute, Washington, DC
• The Elizabeth Spilman Rosenfield Prize for Outstanding
Dissertation Writing, Stanford University
• Geballe Dissertation Fellowship, Stanford Humanities Center
2008-09
• Ms. Giles Whiting Dissertation Fellowship
2007-08
• Centennial Teaching Award, Stanford University
2007-08
• Distinguished Departmental Scholar, Stanford History Department
2010
2009
2006, 2007, 2008
• DAAD Graduate Fellowship
2006-07
• IIE Fulbright: Germany (declined)
2006-07
• Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich: one-year research
fellowship
• Adi Lautman Program for Outstanding Students, Tel-Aviv
University, Israel: Undergraduate Fellowship
2000-01
1997-2003
Publications
Book manuscript
 The Many Deaths of “Jew Süss.” A new account of the trial and execution of Joseph Süss Oppenheimer,
aka “Jew Süss.” Under contract with Princeton University Press.
Book
 The Defortification of the German City, 1689-1866. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Winner of the 2011/12 American Urban History book prize.
Reviews: American Historical Review, German History, Central European History, Journal of Modern
History, German Studies Review, H-Net.
Peer-reviewed articles and book chapters
 “The Paradox of Visual and Material Culture in Mack Walker’s German Home Towns.” Central
European History 47 (September 2014): 505-512.
 “Defortification and the Dialectics of Urban Form in Absolutist France, 1629-1697.” In Walls, Borders,
Boundaries: Spatial and Cultural Practices in Europe. Edited by Marc Silberman, Karen E. Till, and Janet
Ward. New York: Berghahn Books, 2012.
 “Wall, Body, Space: On the Defortification of the European City in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth
Centuries.” Zmanim: An Historical Quarterly 119 (Summer 2012): 6-17. (In Hebrew).
 “What is Defortification? Military Functions, Police Roles, and Symbolism in the Demolition of
German City Walls in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.” WeimarPolis: Multi-disciplinary
Journal of Urban Theory and Practice 1, no. 1 (2009): 31-48. Reprinted in Bulletin of the German
Historical Institute 48 (Spring 2011): 33-58.
 “Between the Linguistic and the Spatial Turns: A Reconsideration of the Concept of Space and its Role
in the Early Modern Period.” Historical Reflections 35, no. 3 (Winter 2009): 37-51.
 “A Word Newly Introduced into Language: The Appearance and Spread of ‘Social’ in French
Enlightened Thought, 1745-1765.” History of European Ideas 34, no. 4 (2008): 500-513.
Other publications
 “Ve-lagardom hayu chamishim u-shtayim madregot” [Hebrew: “And 52 steps led to the gallows”],
Haaretz Tarbut ve-Sifrut, 8.3.13.
 Enzyklopädie jüdischer Geschichte und Kultur (Darmstadt: WBG, 2012), “Jud Süss."
 “Salomon Schächter: Augenzeugenbericht von dem Verscheiden des Joseph Süß secher tsadik
livracha.” In Totengedenkbuch für Joseph Süß Oppenheimer, edited by Hellmut G. Haasis. Worms:
Wormser Verlag, 2012 (Hebrew transcription and German translation of a sensational pamphlet
about the execution of Joseph Suss Oppenheimer in 1738).
Reviews
 Abwesende und Anwesende: Ein Grundriss für eine Gesellschaftsgeschichte der Frühen Neuzeit, by Rudolf
Schlögl. Forthcoming in Historische Anthropologie.
 A Tale of Ritual Murder in the Age of Louis XIV: The Trial of Raphaël Lévy, 1669, by Pierre Birnbaum.
Journal of Modern History (September 2014): 683-684.
 Enlightenment & Language: The Berlin Debates, by Avi Lifschitz. Central European History 47 (June
2014): 430-432.
 Remaking the Rhythms of Life: German Communities in the Age of the Nation-State, by Oliver Zimmer.
American Historical Review (April 2014): 620-621.
 Michael Wolfe, Walled Towns and the Shaping of France: From the Medieval to the Early Modern Era
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). H-France Review, Vol. 10 (October 2010), Nr. 146, 642-46.
Presentations
Invited talks and lectures:
 "Joseph and His Brothers." Yale University, Jewish History Colloquium, November 16, 2015.
 “The Criminal Case Against 'Jew Suss': An Exercise in Second-Order Observation.” University of
Delaware, History Workshop, September 15, 2015.
 “A Convert’s Tale: Christoph David Bernard and the case of ‘Jew Süss.’” Princeton University,
Eighteenth Century Seminar, October 1, 2014.
 “A Convert’s Tale: Christoph David Bernard and the case of ‘Jew Süss.’” Humboldt Universität,
Berlin, July 9, 2014.
 “Die vielfachen Tode von ‘Jud Süß’: 4 Februar 1738.” TU Berlin, February 10, 2014.
 “Outsiders in the Inner Circle: Jews, Christiants, and Courtly Politics.” (With Josh Teplitsky.) Oxford
University, January 22, 2014.
 “Jew Suss: History as a Rashomon.” Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, December 25, 2013.
 The Multiple Deaths of ‘Jew Suss.’” Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany,
November 27, 2013.
 “The Death of ‘Jew Süss’: A Morality Play in Three (Brief) Acts.” Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin,
Germany, November 5, 2013.
 “Hateful Empathy: The Curious Case of “Jew Suss.” Max Planck Institute for Human Values, Berlin,
Germany, October 15, 2013.
 “The Multiple Deaths of Joseph Oppenheimer, February 4, 1738.” Department of Germanic
Languages, UCLA, November 27, 2012.
 “The Multiple Deaths of Joseph Oppenheimer, February 4, 1738.” Europe Center, Stanford
University, October 29, 2012.
 “The Multiple Deaths of Joseph Oppenheimer, February 4, 1738.” Davis Center for Historical Studies,
Princeton University, October 2, 2012.
 “The Trial and Execution of Joseph Oppenheimer, a.k.a. ‘Jew Suss.’” Miller Center for Judaic Studies,
University of Miami, September 24, 2012.
 “The Trial and Execution of Joseph Oppenheimer, a.k.a. ‘Jew Suss.’” Institute for Advanced Study,
Princeton, March 21, 2012.
 “The Multiple Deaths of Joseph Oppenheimer, 1737-38.” Harvard University, November 10, 2011.
 “The Defortification of the German City, 1689-1866.” Vanderbilt University, November 4, 2010.
 “The Defortification of the German City” (upon receiving the Fritz Stern Dissertation Prize). German
Historical Institute, Washington, D.C., November 12, 2010.
 “As the Walls Came Down: Defortification and the Enlightenment.” UC Berkeley, April 2010.
 "Life, Death, and Melancholy in the City”: The Story of the Defortification of Frankfurt am Main,
1792-1801.” J. W. Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, November 2006.
 “Towards a General History of the Defortification of the German City, 1750-1850.” Institute for
Comparative Urban History, University of Münster, Germany, July 2006.
Conferences and workshops
 Co-convenor of the Princeton-Oxford-Münster annual workshop in early modern history, 2010present.
 Co-organizer and panelist, "The Conversations in the Realm of the Dead: An Eightheenth-Century
Genre." German Studies Association (GSA), October, 2015.
 Panel chair, “Protestant Religion, Missions, and Global Networks in the Eighteenth Century.”
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, May 2014.
 Participant, Seminar on Eighteenth Century Conversions. GSA, October 2014.
 Respondent, “Towards New Cultural History of Politics in Eighteenth Century Prussia.” GSA panel,
October 2014.
 Participant, Early Modern Workshop. University of Maryland, August 2013.
 Organizer and chair, AHA Presidential Panel “New Directions in Spatial History.” AHA annual
conference, January, 2012.
 Co-organizer of a series of panels, “German Home Towns: 40 Years Later.” German Studies
Association, Louisville, September 2011.
 Panelist, “The Paradox of Visual and Material Culture in German Home Towns.” German Studies
Association, Louisville, September 2011.
 Co-organizer of a series of panels, “Space as a Keyword in German Studies.” German Studies
Association, Oakland, CA, October 2010.
 Panelist, “German History between the Linguistic and Spatial Turns.” German Studies Association,
Oakland, CA, October 2010.
 Panelist, “What is Defortification?” German Studies Association annual meeting, Washington, D.C.,
October 2009.
 Panelist, “What is Defortification?” Workshop: German History in the Nineteenth Century, German
Historical Institute, Washington, D.C., April 2009.
 Panelist, “The Defortification of the German Metropolis, 1815-1860.” Bundeswehrmuseum, Berlin,
June 2008.
 “How do Concepts Disappear?” Project Absentia: an interdisciplinary workshop on questions of
absence and disappearance in the sciences and the humanities, Stanford University, April 2008.
 Panelist, “Rousseau, Diderot, and ‘Social’s’ Conceptual History in the mid-Eighteenth Century.”
Encyclopédie Conference, University of Chicago, March 2008.
 “A Word Newly Introduced into Language: The Appearance and Spread of “Social” in French
Enlightened Thought, 1745-65.” Seminar on Enlightenment and Revolution, Stanford Humanities
Center, November 2007.
Commentaries at the Davis Seminar, Princeton University
 Emmanuel Kreike, "Between the Dogs of War and the Water Wolf: The Socio-Environmental Impact
of the Dutch Revolt in late 16th Century Holland." March, 2015.
 Adam Teller, “From Amsterdam to Istanbul: The Polish-Jewish Refugee Crisis, 1648-1683.” Davis
Center for Historical Studies, Princeton University, November 2014.
 Paul Friedland, “Rationalizing Slaughter: The Killing of Animals (and People Who Behave Like
Animals) in Early Modern Thought and Modern Practice.” Davis Center for Historical Studies,
Princeton University, March 2012.
 Julia Adams (Yale University) “Sovereignty and Historical Sociology: From State Theory to Theories
of Empire.” Davis Center for Historical Studies, Princeton University, October 2010.
Teaching
Graduate seminars
• Communities in Early Modern Europe
• The Early Modern State
• The Holy Roman Empire, 1495-1806
Spring 2016
Fall 2014
Spring 2013
Undergraduate courses
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The Napoleonic Wars
Early Modern Germany, 1495-1806
The Early Modern City
The Napoleonic Experience (at Stanford University)
Fall 2015
2010, 2011, 2013
2009, 2011
2007
Academic Service and Affiliations
Princeton University
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Committee on Examinations and Standings
Fulbright IIE advisor
Departmental Representative (DUS), History Department
Member of the executive committee, Center for Digital Humanities
Executive Secretary, Davis Center for Historical Studies
At various times, member of the finance committee, planning
committee, undergraduate program committee, The Center for
Collaborative History, all in the History Department
Outside Princeton
• Member of the American Historical Association, German Studies
Association, Society for French Historical Studies, Sixteenth
Century Society, Renaissance Society of America.
• Editorial board member, Studies in German History, Oxford
University Press.
2012-13, 2015-16
2011-present
2014-present
2013-present
2010-11
2009-present