Faculty and Staff
Karl Ittmann
Professor
Phone: (713) 743-3102
Email: kittmann@uh.edu
Office: 530 Agnes Arnold Hall
Dr. Ittmann is a scholar of modern British and Modern European history. His research has focused on the subjects of historical demography, British colonial policy and gender issues. Dr. Ittmann received his Ph. D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Ittmann has also served on the Faculty Senate, Faculty Affairs Committee and has served as the Program Chair for the Western Conference on British Studies. He has taught at the University of Houston since 1989 and served on numerous dissertations and thesis committees.
Teaching
Dr. Ittmann’s undergraduate courses include Western Civilization Since 1450, Modern Britain 1689-2000 and The British Empire 1500-2000. Ittmann teaches graduate courses in British and European history.
Research Interests
Dr. Ittmann’s research reflects his primary interest in modern British history. His first book, Work, Gender and Family in Victorian England, examined the nature of working-class family life in the northern English industrial town of Bradford, West Yorkshire from 1840-1900. In recent years he has shifted his research toward British imperial history. His recently published book, A Problem of Great Importance: Population, Race and Power in the British Empire 1918-1973 examines the origins and development of population policy and demographic thought in the British Empire. He has published articles in the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History and the Journal of Policy History. In addition, he was leader editor and a contributor to a collection of essays on demography and the colonial state in Africa entitled, The Demographics of Empire: The Colonial Order and the Creation of Knowledge, published by Ohio University Press in 2010. His current research project, “The Oil Raj: Oil in the British Empire 1908-1945,” explores the impact of oil upon the British Empire in the first half of the twentieth century.
Selected Publications
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A Problem of Great Importance: Population, Race and Power in the British Empire, 1918-1973, University of California Press, 2013.
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With Dennis D. Cordell and Gregory H. Maddox, eds., The Demographics of Empire: The Colonial Order and the Creation of Knowledge (Ohio University Press in 2010).
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Work, Gender and Family in Victorian England (New York University Press, 1995) [selected as an Outstanding Academic Book by Choice.]
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“Demography as Policy Science in the British Empire, 1918-1970,” Journal of Policy History, October 2003.
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“The Colonial Office and the Population Question in the British Empire, 1918-1962,” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Fall 1999.
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“Family Limitation and Family Economy in Bradford, West Yorkshire 1855-1881,” Journal of Social History, March 1992.
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“Demography and the Working Class Family,” International Labor and Working-Class History, Spring 1991.