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Karina Turmann

  • Dissertation

    Working Title: Colonial Knowledge and the Abolition in the British West Indies, ca. 1780 - 1830

    The dissertation project examines the genesis and instrumentalization of colonial knowledge in response to the abolition movements to abolish the slave trade and slavery in the British Empire. The plantation economies of the Caribbean were put to a challenging test at the end of the 18th century, in particular by abolitionism, everyday threats, and their sheer distance to Britain. In order to take action against these threats, as part of an amelioration period that was supposed to improve the condition of the enslaved, the actors applied measures that were strongly influenced by European patterns of order. Both, the strategies of legitimation by opponents of the abolition and the attempts to restructure plantation management resorted to patterns of difference in relation to the human body and character. The results of these processes were reflected in the ideas and concepts of "race" and found their way into scientific interpretations on the one hand, but also appeared in ongoing imperial-political discourses on the other. The project thus asks about the origin and continuity of knowledge, as well as their colonial impetus, which was shaped by strongly paternalistic structures and ideas.

  • Curriculum Vitae

    2009-2013 Bachelor of Arts in History, Pharmaceutical History and Anglophone Studies at University of Marburg

    2013-2016 Master of Arts in History and European Ethnology / Cultural Anthropology at University of Marburg

    2012-2016 Student and Research Assistant at Herder-Institute Marburg

    2017 Assistant Lecturer and Research Assistant at the Department of Modern History (19./20. Jahrhundert) at University of Marburg

    2017 to present Doctoral Candidate at the Department of Modern History History (19./20. Jahrhundert) at University of Marburg

    2018 to present Research Associate at the SFB/TRR 138 "Dynamics of Security", Subproject C08 "Security and Empire”

    2021 to present Affiliated Scholar at the ERC Projekt "IN THE SAME SEA", Saxo Institute at University of Copenhagen


    First Responder at the Faculty of History and Cultural Studies


    Awards
    Language Course Scholarship at the German Historical Institute Paris

    DAAD Short-Term Scholarship for Doctoral Candidates

  • Courses Taught

    WS 2016/2017 "Wie schreibt man Geschichte?" Tutorial in Liberal Arts Writing

  • Presentations and Projects

    05/2017 Workshop "Science, Medicine, and Empire around 1800", Organisation and Paper "Colonial Medicine in the Caribbean. Knowledge, Bodies, and Interimperial Encounters in the Age of Abolition, ca. 1780-1810", University of Marburg

    09/2017 Paper "Bodies within the Empire. Medical Knowledge in the British Caribbean as a Scientific Tool of Colonialism, 1780–1830" at the Conference "Postcolonialism and its New Discontents", University of California/Universität Vechta

    04/2019 - 08/2019 Exhibition "SLAVERY | SCIENCE | SECURITY", Conception, Organisation, and Workshop, Grenada National Museum, St. George’s

    03/2020 Paper "Creation, Transformation, and Instrumentalization of Colonial Medical Knowledge in the British West Indies" at the Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science Annual Conference, Ochsner Medical Center, New Orleans

    02/2021 Paper "Seeking Security under the Yellow Flag. Disease as a Tool of Colonial Discourse and Practice in the British Caribbean (ca. 1790-1810)" at the Workshop "Security and Difference in Historical Perspective", University of Gießen | SFB/TRR 138, Concept Group "Difference and Intersectionality" (online)

    11/2021 Masterclass "Lack of Freedom and Security in Colonial Spaces", Conception and Organisation, University of Marburg | SFB/TRR 138

    12/2021 Paper "Plantations and the Yaws: Securing Spaces of Enslaved Maternity in the late 18th Century British Caribbean at the Conference "Securing Epidemic Ecologies: Spaces of Disease Control in Historical Perspective, University of Marburg | SFB/TRR 138 (online)

    03/2022 Paper "Plantations and the 'Amelioration': Enslaved Maternity in the late 18th century British Caribbean" at the Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science Annual Conference, Atlanta (online)

    02/2023: Paper "(Un)Sicherheit und koloniale Sklaverei im frühen 19. Jahrhundert. Die British West Indies in der Phase der "Amelioration"
    Conference "(Un-)Sicherheit und (Un-)Gleichheit. Spannungs- und Wechselverhältnisse bei der Versicherheitlichung des Sozialen im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert", Fritz Thyssen Stiftung Cologne

  • Publications

    Seeking Security under the Yellow Flag. Disease as a Tool of Colonial Discourse and Practice in the British West Indies (ca. 1790-1810), in: Anja Krause; Sigrid Ruby [Hrsg.], Sicherheit und Differenz in Historischer Perspektive | Security and Difference in Historical Perspective (Politiken der Sicherheit Vol. 10), Baden-Baden 2022. (Open Access)

    Review: Pamela K. Gilbert, Victorian Skin. Surface, Self, History. Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press Services 2019, in: Historische Zeitschrift, Bd. 316 (2), Walter de Gruyter 2023.