Brandon Bloch

Brandon Bloch is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, specializing in modern German and European history with a focus on democracy, human rights, memory politics, and social thought. His research examines how national and religious identities evolved amid territorial conflicts, ethnic cleansing, and genocide in 20th-century Europe.

Research explores:

• Religious nationalism and democratic consolidation in post-Nazi Germany
• Transformation of Protestant political thought after 1945
• Human rights legal frameworks stemming from forced migrations
• Memory politics of the Holocaust and wartime violence

Recent publications (2018-2025) focus on Protestantism's role in West German democratization, refugee law development after population transfers, and critical reassessments of continental philosophy. His first book, Reinventing Protestant Germany: Religious Nationalists and the Contest for Post-Nazi Democracy (Harvard University Press, 2025), analyzes how church figures reshaped democratic institutions while confronting problematic historical narratives.

Awards and Grants:

• Dorothy and Hsin-Nung Yao Teaching Award (2023)
• First Book Award, UW-Madison Center for the Humanities (2022)
• DAAD and Center for German and European Studies Research Grants (2022-23, 2024-25)

He teaches courses including Europe and the Modern World, The Weimar Republic and the Rise of Nazism, and Genocide, War Crimes Trials, and Human Rights. Dr. Bloch holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and previously taught at the University of Florida. His current project investigates how German expellee organizations influenced international law on ethnic cleansing and the 'right to homeland' after WWII.