Eva Maria Gajek Receives Venia Legendi

Justus Liebig University Giessen awarded Eva Maria Gajek the venia legendi for Modern and Contemporary History in December following her habilitation lecture “Vom Unfall zur Ordnung: Die Kutsche und die Entwicklung von Verkehrsräumen im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert.” In her habilitation thesis, “Auf der Suche nach den Reichen: Eine Wahrnehmungs- und Wissensgeschichte von Reichtum im langen 20. Jahrhundert in Deutschland,” she focuses on the history of wealth in Germany from the 1880s to reunification. Her work makes an innovative contribution to historical research on inequality by understanding wealth not just as an economic factor but as socially produced knowledge – from the point of view of power relations, regimes of visibility, and conflicting interpretations. The same research perspective has also shaped Gajek’s subsequent academic career: Since 2023, she has been a visiting researcher in Jens Beckert's Wealth and Social Inequality Research Focus at the MPIfG. In May, she will co-lead “Where the Rich Live,” a project at the Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space investigating spatial aspects of wealth and social inequality in modern society. Gajek will maintain her ties with the MPIfG in her capacity as research associate.