Rolf Bauer

Rolf Bauer is a historian and researcher at the Institute of Social Ecology, Department of Economic and Social Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). He has held visiting and lecturing positions at the University of Vienna and the Central European University, contributing to disciplines in global, economic, and social history.

His research interests include:

• Colonial famines in India
• Global history of psychoactive substances
• Disaster studies
• Social and economic history of South Asia

Bauer’s publications, particularly his 2019 monograph The Peasant Production of Opium in Nineteenth-Century India, reflect a strong focus on colonial economies, peasant agency, and the socio-political dimensions of drug production. His work bridges economic history with environmental and social vulnerability, especially in colonial contexts.

He has been recognized with awards such as:

• Michael Mitterauer Award for Social, Cultural and Economic History
• Theodor Körner Prize

Bauer has supervised academic theses, including a 2025 master’s thesis on disaster vulnerability, and is currently leading a FWF-funded research project on famines in colonial Bihar. He is actively engaged in academic service, including peer reviewing for journals such as Indian Economic and Social History Review and Peripherie, and organizing international historical conferences.

He is also involved in scholarly community roles, including as General Secretary of the International Conference of Labour and Social History.