Thomas Kolnberger

Thomas Kolnberger is a Research Associate in History at University of Luxemburg specializing in Historical and Urban Geography, Sepulchral Culture and Military History.

He studied history at the Universities of Innsbruck and Vienna (Austria), with his doctoral research at the Universities of Passau (Germany) and Luxembourg, graduating in 2012 with his dissertation titled Historische Geographie Phnom Penhs: Stadtentwicklung zwischen Planung und spontaner Ordnung, 1860 – 2010, University of Luxemburg (Unilu).

From 2015 to 2018 he coordinated the research project RIP (Material Culture and Spaces of Remembrance). From 2019 to 2021 he was the project coordinator of the research project Military History of Luxembourg in the 19th and 20th centuries, co-financed by the Ministère des Affaires étrangères et européennes (MAE), Direction de la Défense. Currently (2025 to 2027), he coordinates the research project History of Luxembourg’s diplomacy and international relations (1815 until today).

Since his theesis, Thomas Kolnberger has published further studies on Phnom Penh urban history, particularly in perspective within the historical framework outlined by researcher Gregory Mikaelian in La Royauté d’Oudong: réformes des institutions et crise du pouvoir dans la
royaume khmer du XVIIe siècle (Paris, PUF-Sorbonne, 2009).

Select Publications

• Zwischen Planung und spontaner Ordnung –Stadt-entwicklung von Phnom Penh 1860 bis 2010, (Abhandlungen zur Geo-graphie und Regionalforschung 17).  Wien: Institut  für Geografie und Regionalforschung der Universität Wien, 2014. 544 p. ISBN 9783900830−83−0.
• “Between planning and spontaneous order: the ​‘equifinal’ production of urban space in
  colonial Phnom Penh (1860s-1930s,” Geographische Zeitschrift 102 – 2, 2014, pp. 86 – 105.
• “ ​‘Voices’ from the UNTAC files: policy and politics of accommodation in Phnom Penh after the Khmer Rouge,” Journal of South East Asia Research 23 (3), 2015, 377 – 404. 
• “Continuity and change: Transformations in the urban history of Phnom Penh, Cambodia”, in Sandra Kurfürst & Stefanie Wehner (eds.), Southeast Asian Transformations: Urban and Rural Developments in the 21st Century, Koln: [transcript] Global Studies, 2020, p. 219 – 38.
• [with Sébastien Vecchiato] ​“Entre ​‘dette du sang’ et ​‘military labour migration’: les Luxembourgeois engagés dans la Légion étrangère (1831−1914)”, Revue Historique des Armées 302, 2021, p. 41 – 49.
• [with Harlan Koff] Agency, Security and Governance of Small States: A Global Perspective, London, Taylor and Francis, 2023. 
• “Wolf und Mensch: Eine belastete Beziehung mit langer Geschichte”, Forum [Natur und Tier: Wo stehen wir?], Jan. 2025, p. 31 – 33.

Author’s photo from Thomas Kolnberger’s page on Unilu website.