Dr. Peter Staudenmaier

Dr. Peter StaudenmaierMarquette University

Sensenbrenner Hall, 203B

MilwaukeeWI53201United States of America(414) 288-3560peter.staudenmaier@marquette.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Associate Professor

History

Peter Staudenmaier is Associate Professor of History, with a focus on modern Europe. He joined the Marquette faculty in 2011 after receiving his PhD from Cornell in 2010. His work centers on Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, environmental history, and the history of racial thought.

Education

Ph.D., Cornell 2010

Courses Taught

Nazi Germany and the Holocaust

Environmental History: Ecology and Society in the Modern World

Europe in the Twentieth Century

Histories of Race and Racism

The Search for Historical Justice in Modern Germany

Fascism and the Radical Right, 1918 to Today

Research Interests

Dr. Staudenmaier recently published two new books. The Politics of Nature in Nazi Germany: Environmental Ideals and the Myth of Blood and Soil (Cambridge University Press 2026) is a detailed archival study examining the controversial history of ecological tendencies during the Nazi era. Julius Evola and the Radical Right: Spiritual Racism from Fascist Italy to the New Age (Routledge 2026), based on extensive archival research in Rome and Berlin, traces the career of esoteric thinker Julius Evola, an iconic figure for the radical right, both before and after 1945.

In addition to his research on Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, Dr. Staudenmaier is pursuing several longer-term projects. “Imagined Aryan Pasts: Ancient Myths in a Modern World” is a critical examination of the ways in which cultural images of an “Aryan” past are mobilized for political purposes with little sense of their historical origins. “From Green to Brown: Right-Wing Ecology Past and Present” explores the legacy of reactionary and authoritarian forms of environmentalism across a range of international contexts, in contrast to the emancipatory and democratic potential of ecological politics. The final project, under the working title “Inventing Race: A History of Racial Thought from the Enlightenment to the Genomic Age,” brings together interdisciplinary research on the emergence of modern racial thinking.

Specialization

Modern Germany

Publications

He is the author of Between Occultism and Nazism: Anthroposophy and the Politics of Race in the Fascist Era (Leiden: Brill, 2014); Ecology Contested: Environmental Politics between Left and Right (New Compass Press 2021); The Politics of Nature in Nazi Germany: Environmental Ideals and the Myth of Blood and Soil (Cambridge University Press 2026); Julius Evola and the Radical Right: Spiritual Racism from Fascist Italy to the New Age (Routledge 2026); and articles on topics ranging from antisemitism to esotericism.

Honors and Awards

Since arriving at Marquette, Dr. Staudenmaier has been honored with several university awards. He received the Way-Klingler Young Scholar Award in 2014; the College of Arts and Sciences Teacher of the Year Award and the Gettel Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence in 2019; and the Way Klingler Sabbatical Fellowship Award in 2024.