Dr. Alexander Drost

Alexander Drost is an interdisciplinary historian and academic manager at the University of Greifswald. After studying history and German literature at Greifswald and Joensuu (Finland), he focussed on the research of cultural exchanges between Europe and Asia in the early modern period. His doctoral thesis on “Colonial Sepulchral Culture in Bengal” (2007) is based on archival research in London, The Hague, Kolkata and field trips to the burial grounds in India. His follow-up research on “European Borders in Asia” provides the basis for studying two maritime regions from a comparative perspective, namely the South China and Baltic Sea regions. The latter has been his research focus since 2006 after he began to manage the research activities and graduate programmes on the Baltic Sea region. Following a brief teaching stint at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena from 2009-2010, he managed the interdisciplinary and international research programme on “Baltic Borderlands: Shifting Boundaries of Mind and Culture in the Borderlands of the Baltic Sea Region”. This programme has yielded fresh impulses in the study of the Baltic Sea region and moreover strengthened the institutional support frameworks for studying this region. These primordial structures have now been consolidated in the Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research, which Alexander Drost presently manages. His most recent publications include Collapse of Memory - Memory of Collapse: Narrating Past, Presence and Future about Periods of Crisis. (2019, together with O. Sasunkevich, J. Schiedermair und B. Törnquist-Plewa), “Borders: A narrative turn. Reflections on Concepts, Practices and their Communication”. (2017) and “Bordering jenseits territorialer Grenzen: Intersektionelles Denken und Ungleichheitsphänomene in "Niederländisch-Indien" im 17. Jahrhundert” (2018).

Monograph:

Tod und Erinnerung – Koloniale Sepulkralkultur in Bengalen, 17.-19. Jahrhundert. Jena 2011 [Death and Memory – Colonial Sepulchral Culture in Bengal, 17th-19th Centuries].

Edited volumes:

Collapse of Memory - Memory of Collapse. Narrating Past, Presence and Future abot Periods of Crisis. Köln-Weimar-Wien 2019 (ed. together with Olga Sasunkevich, Joachim Schiedermair and Barbara Törnquist-Plewa).

Die Neuerfindung des Raumes: Grenzüberschreitungen und Neuordnungen. Köln-Weimar-Wien 2013 (ed. together with Michael North) [The Re-Invention of Space: Crossing Borders and Re-Ordering].

Von Liebe und Fremde – Xenophilie in den Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften. Köln-Weimar-Wien 2010 (ed. together with Klara Deecke) [Of Love and Foreignness – Xeno-philia in Humanities and Social Sciences].

Papers:

"Bordering jenseits territorialer Grenzen: Intersektionelles Denken und Ungleichheitsphänomene in "Niederländisch-Indien" im 17. Jahrhundert." In Matthias Bähr and Florian Kühnel, eds., Verschränkte Ungleichheit (Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung, Beiheft 56), Berlin 2018, pp. 151-172.

"Borders. A Narrative Turn – Reflections on Concepts, Practices and their Communication." In Olivier Mentz and Tracey McKay, eds., Unity in Diversity. European Perspectives on Borders and Memories (Europa lernen. Perspektiven für eine Didaktik europäischer Kulturstudien, vol. 7), Berlin 2017, pp. 14-33.

"Structures of Power in Late Antique Borderlands: Arabs, Romans, and Berbers.” In: John W. Lee, Michael North, eds., Globalizing Borderlands Studies in Europe and North America. Lincoln, NE 2016, pp. 33-82 (together with Greg Fisher).

"Future Directions in Borderlands Studies." In: John W. Lee, Michael North, eds., Globalizing Borderlands Studies in Europe and North America. Lincoln, NE 2016, pp. 251-255 (together with Michael North).

"Ostseeräume. Umbruch zwischen kultureller Einheit und politischer Krise in einer europäischen Seeregion um 1800.” In: Martin Loeser, ed., Verwandlung der Welt? Berlin 2016, pp. 21-34 [Baltic Sea Areas. Change in a culturally united area like the Baltic Sea region in periods of turmoil around 1800].

"Neustrelitz”. In: Gerhard Fouquet, Olaf Mörke, Matthias Müller, Werner Paravicini, eds., Handbuch: Residenzstädte im Alten Reich (1300-1800), Ostfildern 2018. [History of the residence in Neustrelitz].