Raw Materials of the Humanities
Jonathan Haid
PhD student in the DFG project "Raw Materials of the Humanities" at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Doctoral student of the International Max Planck Research School “Knowledge and Its Resources” at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
RESPONSIBLE FOR SUBPROJECT
CV
Jonathan Haid studied Cultural Theory and History at the Universität Leipzig and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
RESEARCH
With his dissertation project Nitrocellulose. A Material and Media History of the Humanities, he focuses on the intersection of media studies and the history of science.
PUBLICATIONS AND LECTURES
Lectures:
“Rohstoffe des Films: Mediengeschichte als materielle Provenienzforschung,” Lecture in the series “Handhabungen der Filmwissenschaft,” Department of Theater Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, February 2026
“Campher, Wald und Zelluloid: Materielle und ökologische Ansätze der Medien- und Wissensgeschichte,” Annual Conference of the Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft (GfM), Paderborn University, September 2025
“Taiwan’s Camphor Forests and the Political Ecology of Celluloid Film,” 27th International Congress of History of Science and Technology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, July 2025
“Camphor Forests in Taiwan and Chemical Synthesis: Colonialism, Capitalism, and the Chemical Industry,” 14th International Conference on the History of Chemistry, University of Valencia, Spain, June 2025
“Forest and Film: Camphor Extraction in Colonial Taiwan and Media Infrastructure of Celluloid,” Annual Conference of the Society for the History of Technology (gtg) and the Interdisciplinary Committee for the History of Technology of the VDI (IGTG), German Museum of Technology, Berlin, April 2025
“Stoffliche Provenienzforschung. Geschichten von Medien, Materialien und Wissenschaften“, with Lotte Schüßler, as part of the lecture series Methoden der Mediengeschichte: Welche Medien, welche Geschichte/n?, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Musikwissenschaft und Medienwissenschaft, 29.04.2024
“Zelluloidfilm: Extraktive Materialitäten”, at the FFK37: Film- und Medienwissenschaftliches Kolloquium 2024, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, March 2024
“The Humanities, Media, and Their Material Provenance”, presented with Viktoria Tkaczyk and Lotte Schüßler, as part of the lecture series Dis/Entangling Perspectives in Material Research, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Cluster of Excellence Matters of Activity, November 2021
“Kulturforschung mit Zelluloid: Kolonialhandel, Rohstoffe, Film”, at the annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft 2021, Universität Innsbruck, September 2021
Publications:
Review of Sebastian Haumann, Eva-Maria Roelevink, Nora Thorade and Christian Zumbrägel: Perspektiven auf Stoffgeschichte: Materialität, Praktiken, Wissen, Ambix, 2026 (forthcoming), doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2026.2641373.
“From Natural to Synthetic? Rethinking Narratives of Chemical “Replacement” in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” with Lejie Zeng and Omri Polatsek, in: Feature Stories. Berlin: The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, 2025.
“The Raw Materials of Celluloid Film: Wartime Economy, Educational Animation, and Film’s Plasticity”. In Research in Film and History, no. 5, Issue: Educational Film Practices. 2023.
“Richtungshörer im Ersten und Zweiten Weltkrieg. Auditive Wissenstechniken zwischen Experimentalpsychologischer Forschung und Kriegstechnologie”. In Eintauchen / Auftauchen, edited by Bild Wissen Gestaltung. Ein Interdisziplinäres Labor. Berlin: 2018.
“Der Klang des kranken Körpers. Ein kulturhistorischer Einblick in die Didaktik der Auskultation.” In bewegen – übersetzen – anstoßen, edited by Bild Wissen Gestaltung. Ein Interdisziplinäres Labor, 64–71. Berlin: 2017.