Silke Mende is a contemporary historian. From October 2019 to March 2021, she was deputy director at Centre Marc Bloch (CMB) in Berlin. Since April 2021 she is professor for modern and contemporary history (19th-21st century) at the University of Münster. She continues to be an associated researcher at the Centre Marc Bloch.

Her work focuses on German, French and European political history from the 19th century to the present day. Her research considers language and language policy as a political-cultural instrument and situates it amidst the complex interplay between the French nation-state, its empire, and the “international” arena. Her current research project deals with the European history of democracy and parliamentarism in the last third of the 20th century. Additional research interests include the history of representation, social movements and protest, as well as New Imperial History.

Recent publications include Ordnung durch Sprache: Francophonie zwischen Nationalstaat, Imperium und internationaler Politik, 1860–1960 (München: De Gruyter Oldenbourg 2020); ‘“Enemies at the Gate”: The West German Greens and Their Arrival at the Bundestag—Between Old Ideals and New Challenges’ German politics and society 33 (2015) 66-79.