Anchoring Indian Ocean Studies at JGU Mainz

For more than fifteen years, Julia Verne has been actively involved in different research networks focusing on Indian Ocean Studies. After spending time as a visiting scholar at Indian Ocean related research institutes in Los Angeles, La Réunion, Oman, Australia and Zanzibar to study the increasing institutionalisation of this transregional approach, we have developed close connections to the Max Planck research group led by Burkhard Schnepel in Halle, Germany as well as to the Indian Ocean World Centre at McGill University, Canada. Together with a large number of collaborators from different parts of the world we were awarded a partnership grant funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to focus on “Appraising risk” in the Indian Ocean.

Together with colleagues at JGU Mainz who also have an interest in this oceanic region, we now wish to anchor our international research networks at JGU Mainz. First joint events are planned for autumn 2022.