Frozen Conflicts between War and Peace
Oct 30, 2025 | 6pm ET
39th Annual Lecture at GHI Washington | Speaker: Ulrike von Hirschhausen (German Historical Institute Washington); Comment: Aviel Roshwald (Georgetown University)
This year's annual lecture will also serve as the inaugural lecture for the new GHI director, Ulrike von Hirschhausen. In her lecture, Hirschhausen will introduce the concept of “frozen conflicts” in the 20th and 21st centuries. She will explain how these conflicts can emerge from disputed de facto states and why the legacy of empire continues to influence the situation today. The lecture will present a new conceptual framework applicable to these conflicts worldwide.
The lecture begins at 6pm, with doors opening at 5:30 pm. The lecture will also be streamed.
About the speaker
Ulrike von Hirschhausen is a historian of imperial and global history, who is particularly interested in writing global biographies of indigenous actors. Her book, Empires: A Global History, 1780–1920 (co-authored with Jörn Leonhard, 2023), was longlisted for the 2024 Austrian Academic Book Award. Ulrike studied history at Amherst College and received her M.A. from Stanford University and her Ph.D. from the University of Tübingen. She earned her habilitation (second book) from the University of Göttingen. Her forthcoming book, due out in 2026, examines so-called "frozen conflicts" in the 20th and 21st centuries. The book focuses on disputed de facto states and proposes a new conceptual framework applicable to conflicts with contested statehood worldwide. Before joining the GHI as director in October 2025, she was a professor of modern European and global history at the University of Rostock and a fellow of Harvard's Weatherhead Research Cluster on Global History in 2024/25.
