Respatialization of the World and the Emergence of the Global Condition During the 19th Century

Biographical Notes

Prof. Dr. Matthias Middell (SFB 1199 & Global and European Studies Institute, Leipzig University, Germany)
Matthias Middell is a professor of cultural history at the Leipzig University as well as a speaker of the SFB 1199 and director of the Global and European Studies Institute at the Leipzig University. He studied history earning his PhD from the Leipzig University with his research focusing on the French Revolution. Since 2013, he has served as the director of the Graduate School Global and Area Studies in Leipzig and is currently the head of the Erasmus Mundus Global Studies Consortium. He teaches regularly at partner universities and co-supervises PhD candidates with colleagues from France, South Africa, and Ethiopia. His current research interests include the history of the French Revolution from a global perspective, history of cultural transfers around the world, and the role of space in the understanding of the current world being the result of long-lasting global connections.

Dr. Megan Maruschke (SFB 1199, Leipzig University, Germany)
Megan Maruschke came to Leipzig University from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2010 to join the Erasmus Mundus MA Programme “Global Studies – A European Perspective”. She also studied in Italy and Poland. In 2012, she started her PhD research at Leipzig within the Research Training Group (GK) 1261: “Critical Junctures of Globalization”. She wrote her dissertation on the history of free port and free trade zone practices since the mid-nineteenth century in Mumbai, India. This researched focused on zones as tools used to foster state rescaling and reterritorialization projects. Her current research deals with how important questions circulating at the time of the Atlantic revolutionary cycle (1770–1830) – such as slavery and abolitionism, citizenship, and free trade – meant rethinking how societies would be spatially organized.

Julia Oheim (SFB 1199, Leipzig University, Germany)
As a graduate in Middle Eastern studies (MA), Julia Oheim focused her studies on the economics and social geography of the Middle East and North Africa. Within this scope, she has been particularly interested in the sociology of space and globalization theory. During the master’s programme, followed by her employment as a research assistant at the DFG Priority Programme (SPP 1448): “Adaptation and Creativity in Africa”, she conducted field research in Morocco, Benin, and Cameroon. Before joining the SFB as a junior researcher, she worked as the academic coordinator of the French Studies Center (Frankreichzentrum) at the Leipzig University.