Bordering through the Lens of Slavery and Abolition in the US

Biographical Note

Dr. Megan Maruschke (SFB 1199)

My current research deals with the history of American boundaries in the long 19th century as part of multiple projects of respatialization, which goes beyond undertsanding the national boundary as a container of state sovereignty. This research is a contribution to the SFB 1199 sub-project, B01 “The Respatialization of the World during the Formation of the Global Condition, 1820–1914: The Americas and the French Empire.” In 2016, I finished my PhD at Leipzig within the Research Training Group (GK 1261): “Critical Junctures of Globalization”. I wrote my dissertation on the history of free port and free trade zone practices since the mid-nineteenth century in Mumbai, India. This research focused on zones as tools used to foster state rescaling and reterritorialization projects. Before coming to Leipzig, I studied Global Studies and Italian Studies at UC Santa Barbara, USA; international relations at the University of Padua, Italy; and Global Studies at the University of Wrocław, Poland.