Academic training

Svenja von Jan (M.A.) studied history and political science as well as history with a focus on "Transnational European History in the Modern Age" at the Georg-August-University Göttingen. In 2016, as a member of the DFG long-term project "Modern India in German Archives, 1706-1989 (MIDA)", she played a key role in the conception, realisation and presentation of the exhibition "Hamburg-India: Traces of an Intertwined History" as part of the 51st German Historians' Day 2016 in Hamburg.

Project outline

Indian migration and migrational networks - preconditions and functioning of South Asian settlement in European and American port cities (working title)

The doctoral project focuses on the preconditions and functioning of South Asian migration in European and American port cities between 1880 and 1945. Starting with the massive migration of Indian soldiers and seafarers in the course of the First World War, the project examines why South Asian contact with hubs of international world trade, namely Hamburg, London, Marseilles or Rotterdam, sometimes led to permanent settlement, while in other places migration was temporary or circular.