I am a historian of empire, finance and international relations, currently conducting my PhD at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.
My doctoral project is set on the intersections of histories of sovereign debt, state development, and comparative histories of US and British imperialism. Under the provisionary title ‘Great Power Rivalry and Imperialist Finance: U.S. Dollar Diplomacy in the Caribbean & British Finance in Egypt, 1870-1920’ my dissertation explores how sovereign debt was used as an important diplomatic tool in the hands of imperial state managers. Through investigations of British finance in Egypt (1870 – 1914) and US Dollar Diplomacy in the Dominican Republic (1904 – 1920) my research compares the dynamic of state – capital relations and attempts to lay bare specific patterns of imperial state finance. These interactions are explored through the papers of influential bankers (Sir Ernest Cassel, Frank Vanderlip, and Kuhn, Loeb, & Co’s Jacob H. Schiff) and relevant state officials (such as Lord Cromer and Jacob Hollander), as well as prominent banker magazines and other state archives.
I obtained my MA in Social and Economic History at Durham University, my BA in History from the University of Amsterdam, and I studied International Relations at the University of Groningen.
At the European University Institute I was elected researcher representative for the year 2016. Since 2014 I have also been a member and convener of the Economic History Working Group.
For 2017, I am the initiator and organiser of a transatlantic conference on the ‘Histories of Capitalism’, bringing together US and European scholars.