TO TOP


Dr. Daniel Wollnik

Associated scientist

Room: MB 3.121
Phone: +49 (0)234 32-26256
Email:
Office hours: Wednesday, 10-12 a.m. (registration by e-mail)



Main research interests (Modern Japanese History)

  • History of politics and bureaucracy
  • History of media and communication
  • Organisational and administrative history
  • Historical research on violence
  • 07/2026: Dissertation was awarded with the Wilhelm-Hollenberg-Prize of the Gesellschaft der Freunde der Ruhr-Universität Bochum
  • Since October 2025 Postdoctoral fellowship in the project “Gewalt in postfaschistischen Nachkriegsdemokratien” [“Violence in Post-Fascist Post-War Democracies”] of the Gerda Henkel Foundation, University of Tübingen.
  • Since 2025 Associated scientist at the Chair of Japanese History at Ruhr University Bochum.
  • 06/2025: Dissertation was awarded with the Martin-Behaim-Prize of the Gesellschaft für Globalgeschichte
  • 09/2024: Completion of the dissertation (summa cum laude).
    Title of dissertation: “‘Im Dienste der Allgemeinheit’: Das Kommunikationsministerium (Teishinshō) und die Mobilisierung der japanischen Nation für den totalen Krieg (1931–1945)” [“‘In the Service of the Public’: The Ministry of Communications (Teishinshō) and the Mobilisation of the Japanese Nation for Total War (1931–1945)”]
  • 11/2021–10/2022: Research stay at Aoyama Gakuin University (Tōkyō) as a Fellow of the Japan Foundation.
  • 01–03/2018: Research stay in Tōkyō as a Fellow of the Tōshiba International Foundation.
  • 01/2018: Award for the Master’s thesis with the Nachwuchsförderpreis Kommunikationsgeschichte 2018 [Young Talent Award for Communication History 2018] by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Publizistik und Kommunikationswissenschaft (DGPuK) [German Communication Association].
    Title of the thesis: „Die gesellschaftliche Implementierung des Telefons in Japan im 19. Jahrhundert – Eine Analyse aus diskursgeschichtlicher Perspektive“ [“The Social Implementation of the Telephone in Japan in the 19th Century – An Analysis from a Discourse-analytical Perspective”]
  • October 2016–2025: Research assistant at the Chair of Japanese History at Ruhr University Bochum.
  • 2016: M.A. in German-Japanese Intercultural Studies/Japanese Language at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and Keiō University in Tōkyō (double master’s programme funded by a scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation and the Robert Bosch Stiftung [Robert Bosch Foundation]).
  • 2014: B.A. in Japanese Studies (specialising in History) and Media Studies at the Ruhr University Bochum. Honoured with the student prize of the Ruhr University Bochum for the BA thesis.
    Thesis titlet: „Zur Komplexität von Krisenbewältigung, Wettbewerbsstrategien und Marktaneignung: Die Neustrukturierung des Pressemarktes in Tōkyō nach dem Kantō-Erdbeben von 1923“ [“On the Complexity of Crisis Management, Competitive Strategies and Market Appropriation: The Restructuring of the Press Market in Tōkyō after the Kantō earthquake of 1923”].
  • 2012–2013: Study visit at the Keiō-Universität in Tōkyō with a one-year scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service.
  • (to be published in 2027) “Telecommunications and the Militarization of State and Society in Modern Japan”. In: De Pretto, Sebastian / Grinsell, Sam / Hanna, Erika / Melsted, Odinn (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Modern Infrastructural History. Routledge.
  • (2026) “Rethinking the significance of the reform bureaucrats: ideological conflict and micropolitics in the making of state electricity control in 1930s Japan”. In: Japan Forum, 38. https://doi.org/10.1080/09555803.2026.2664458
  • (2026) “Nothing new? Bureaucratic Reforms and the Reorganization of the Ministry of Communications (Teishinshō) in Occupied Japan (1945-1952)”. In: Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Volume 24 (1), Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/apj.2025.10028
  • (2018) „Das Telefon und seine Einführung in Japan im 19. Jahrhundert - Diskursanalytische Bemerkungen zu einem besonderen Fall der Telefongeschichte“ [“The Telephone and its Introduction in Japan in the 19th Century - Discourse-analytical Remarks on a Special Case of Telephone History”]. In: Medien & Zeit, 33 (3), 69-74.