Historical Regional Geography 
of Central and Eastern Europe

My research develops Historical Regional Geography as a distinct field within human geography — one that draws on historical depth as an epistemic resource for contemporary geographical debates. Situated at the intersection of the history and philosophy of geography, political geography, and border studies, I investigate how regions, borderlands, and peripheries in Central and Eastern Europe have been constructed, contested, and transformed through scientific, political, and institutional practices across the twentieth century. A particular focus lies on the entanglements of geographical knowledge production with political power — from the Weimar Republic and National Socialism through the Cold War to the present — and on what these historical geographies can contribute to current debates about space, knowledge, and practice.

Working from archival sources in Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic, my empirical research centres on the Czech-German-Austrian borderlands as a laboratory for understanding how geographical knowledge is produced under changing political conditions, how border regions are shaped by competing spatial imaginaries, and how historical legacies continue to inform contemporary processes of cross-border integration and regional transformation. This research agenda connects to broader questions about the role of geographical knowledge in global and local upheavals, the everyday negotiation of spatial identities in peripheral regions, and the conditions under which geographical thinking is produced, legitimised, and contested.