Paul Moersener

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Project summary

The historiography of technology has long focused primarily on innovation and novelty, while the persistence of older technologies has often been overlooked. The cottage ribbon-weaving industry [Hausbandweberei] in the Bergisches Land, which developed from the 18th century onward, provides an exemplary case of technological continuity and the polychronic use of technology within industrial modernity. By combining institutionalist and anthropological perspectives, this dissertation contributes to a culturally oriented history of technology. It demonstrates how technology and everyday life were closely intertwined, and how cultural practices emerged from the rhythms of the loom. Furthermore, it engages with debates on temporality, tacit knowledge, and material culture in twentieth-century history.

Talks

• Moersener, P. (2025): “Filmpräparate. Zur epistemischen Praxis der Encyclopaedia Cinematographica, Allumfassend? Techniken und Medien des Enzyklopädischen, ca. 1945–2000“, Workshop at Humboldt University of Berlin
• Moersener, P. (2025): „Tiere vor der Kamera. Film als Forschungstechnologie in der Verhaltensbiologie der 1960er Jahre“, ANIMAL-BASED. Historische Perspektiven auf Tiere in Medizin, Wissenschaft und Technik, Jahrestagung der GWMT in Dresden
• Moersener, P. (2025): „Präparat oder Modell? Der Film als Forschungstechnologie am Max-Planck-Institut für Verhaltensphysiologie“, Materialien des Forschens und Lernens, Early Career Workshop at University of Wuppertal

Short Biography

• Since 2025: Ph.D. candidate in History of Science and Technology, University of Wuppertal
• 2022–2025: M.A. in History of Global Markets (Economic and Social History), University of Göttingen
• 2018–2022: B.A. in Economic and Social History and Philosophy, University of Göttingen