Dr. Mikkel Munthe Jensen

Academic Profile

Mikkel Munthe Jensen is a Research Fellow am Interdisziplinären Zentrum für die Erforschung der Europäischen Aufklärung (IZEA) at the Martin Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg, and associated Postdoc Fellow at Forschungszentrum Gotha and Max-Weber-Kolleg für kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Studien, Universität Erfurt. 

Jensen works in the field of Intellectual History, the History of Knowledge and the History of Universities. His focus is on the early modern cultural and political history of science and higher learning and on the developing fields of digital humanities. He is the project director of the DFG Project (€354.000) Institutionalising the Law of Nature and Nations: The Universities of Kiel, Greifswald and Rostock 1648–1806. Moreover, he is the editor and project manager of the prosopographical database project Natural Law 1625-1850: Database, and since 2018, he has also been the research coordinator and member of the international research project Natural Law 1625-1850 at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies and the Research Centre Gotha, both at the University of Erfurt. He earned his doctoral degree at the European University Institute in Florence (EUI) with a dissertation on the history of Nordic universities, which was supervised by Prof. Stéphane van Damme and Prof. Ann Thomson. Mikkel Munthe Jensen has been the national Management Committee Member for Denmark in the COST Action project Reassembling the Republic of Letters at the University of Oxford, and coordinated and co-developed of the digital visualisation and exploration tool VIA, Virtual Itineraries of Academics. He has taught at the University of Florence and University of Erfurt, and until 2017 he worked as research assistant and tutor in digital humanities (prosopographies, mapping and visualisations) at the European University Institute.

Mikkel Munthe Jensen holds a Phd degree and a Master of Research degree from the European University Institute, Florence and a Candidatus Magisterii (MA) and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Copenhagen.

Curriculum Vitae (Short)

• 2022/07-2027/03: Project director of the DFG Project (eigene Stelle). “Institutionalising the law of nature and nations: The universities of Kiel, Greifswald and Rostock 1648–1806” (since 01.07.2024 hosted at IZEA, Halle-Wittenberg).
• 2023/10-2024/04 Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at the Chair of Early Modern History (Prof. Hillard von Thiessen), University of Rostock.
• 2018/03: PhD in History and Civilization, European University Institute, Florence
• 2018/01-2022/06: Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter/postdoc at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies and at Gotha Research Centre, University of Erfurt
• 2016/05-2018/06: Managing Committee Member (Denmark) of the COST Action IS1310 Reassembling the Republic of Letter
• 2016/01: Visiting Scholar at Oxford University, STSM under COST Action Reassembling the Republic of Letters, invited by COST Action project director Prof. Dr. Howard Hotson
• 2014/06: Master of Research, European University Institute, Florence
• 2013/09-2017/11: PhD Studies in History and Civilization at the European University Institute, Florence
• 2012/01: Master of Arts (Candidatus magisterii) in History, University of Copenhagen
• 2009/01: Bachelor of Arts in History, University of Copenhagen

Full CV (pdf)

Research projects

Institutionalising the law of nature and nations: The universities of Kiel, Greifswald and Rostock 1648–1806
The project is about the history of the teaching of natural law at the three north German universities in Kiel, Greifswald and Rostock during the period 1648–1806. It is concerned with why, how and to what extent this academic discipline developed in three different political settings along the Baltic coast. The project is based on the general presumption that natural law was of great significance for the period’s intellectual development and state building endeavours. The general aim of the project is to show that “modern” natural law, even at smaller north German universities, was playing an important role in this matter

Funding: DFG (€ 354.000), Period: 01.07.2022-31.03.2027
For more information see project webpage

Natural Law 1625-1850: Database
The natural law database is first and foremost a detailed open reservoir of knowledge that contains not only structured biographical and bibliographical data but also links to digitalised source material as well as commentaries made by individual specialists. Building upon this reservoir, a long-term goal is to develop and implement analytical visualisation tools in the database, so users easily can conduct both general and specialised data explorations. The creation of such a database is in essence a transnationally collaborative and open-ended digital enterprise, which also means that populating and expanding the database rely on contributions from the already established research networks within the Natural Law 1625-1850 project and on widening the circle of contributors in the field. The basic aim of the database is thus to provide an essential tool for the Natural Law project to compile and structure data and conduct research on early modern natural law scholars, their works and their institutions.

For more information see project webpage

Publications

Books

• Jensen, Mikkel Munthe, Patriotism and Reform in Nordic Universities during the Long Eighteenth Century, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment (Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2023), 416 pages.

Database (editor)

• Jensen, Mikkel Munthe (ed.), Natural Law 1625-1850: Database (Erfurt, Gotha, Jena: ThULB, 2019-) [Online Database]

Articles and book chapters

• Jensen, Mikkel Munthe, “Johann Philipp Palthenius: The life and library of a natural law scholar at the turn of the eighteenth century”, in Enlightened Libraries, ed. Knud Haakonssen and Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen, Early Modern Natural Law: Studies and Sources (Brill) [Forthcoming].
• Jensen, Mikkel Munthe, “Samuel Rachels gelehrter Briefwechsel mit Johann Christian von Boineburg, 1659-1664”, in Naturrecht, Politik und Reform der Gesellschaft: Johann Christian von Boineburg, ed. Martin Mulsow and Gángó, Gábor, Gothaer Forschungen zur Frühen Neuzeit (Steiner Verlag) [Forthcoming 2025].
• Jensen, Mikkel Munthe, “Jens Kraft’s Account of Native Peoples’ Principal Institutions: A Case of Eighteenth-Century Political Anthropology”, History of European Ideas (2025), January, p. 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01916599.2025.2453706 (Open Access).
• Jensen, Mikkel Munthe, “Martin Ehlers” in Efterslæt - festskrift til Sebastian Olsen-Jørgensen, ed. Kristoffer Schmidt and Jes Fabricius Møller (Copenhagen, 2024), p.72-81.   
• Jensen, Mikkel Munthe, “Teaching Natural Law at the University of Kiel: The History of an Academic Discipline 1665–1773” in History of Universities, 35, vol. 2 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), p. 106-142.
• Jensen, Mikkel Munthe, “Contesting the universality of European academic degrees. The case of Nordic doctoral degrees during the long eighteenth century” in Early Modern Universities and the Sciences, ed. Vittoria Feola and Silvano, Giovanni (Padua: Franco Angeli, 2020), p.139-161.
• Jensen, Mikkel Munthe, Howard Hotson, Gabriella Martinez, Dagmar Mrozik & Thomas Wallnig, “IV.5 Prosopographies of the Republic of Letters” in Reassembling the Republic of Letters in the Digital Age - Standards, Systems, Scholarship, ed. Howard Hotson and Thomas Wallnig (Göttingen: Göttingen University Press, 2019), p. 371-399 Open Access Specific contributions:
  • Howard Hotson & Mikkel Munthe Jensen: “Universities as Point of Departure”, p. 373-377
  • Jensen: “Charting the Travels of Nordic Academics via VIA (Virtual Itineraries of Academics), p. 378-383
• Jensen, Mikkel Munthe, Marco Quaggiotto & Joëlle Weis, “VIA – Virtual Itineraries of Academics. A Digital Exploration Tool for Early Modern Academic Travels”, in Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Gesellschaft zur Erforschung des 18. Jahrhunderts (Böhlau Verlag: Vienna, 2019), p. 13-30
• Jensen, Mikkel Munthe, “From Learned Cosmopolitanism to Scientific Inter-Nationalism - The Patriotic Transformation of Nordic Academia and Academic Culture during the Long Eighteenth Century” 2 vols. (European University Institute, Doctoral Dissertation, 2018), 378 + 146 pages.
• Jensen, Mikkel Munthe, “De lærdes identitet og fællesskab i den danske helstat – fædrelandspatriotiske og transnationale lærde selvforståelser i 1700-tallets anden halvdel” in Historisk Tidsskrift, Vol. 113, No. 1, 2013, p. 80-121.

Digital tools

• Jensen, Mikkel Munthe, Marco Quaggiotto & Joëlle Weis, VIA – Virtual Itineraries of Academic [Online exploration tool] (2016)

Reviews

• Jensen, Mikkel Munthe [REVIEW], Fundats og Ordinans for Københavns Universitet 1539/The Foundation and Regulations of the University of Copenhagen 1539, (ed.) Morten Fink-Jensen, in Historisk Tidsskrift 121, vol. 1 (2021), p. 263-264.