Ian Merkel (Ph.D. New York University/University of São Paulo) joins Global History at the Freie Universität as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow. Prior to this, he taught at Cornell University, the University of Miami, the University of Turin, and Leipzig University. His first book, Terms of Exchange: Brazilian Intellectuals and the French Social Sciences, was published by the University of Chicago Press in May 2022. Here is a podcast about the book, which will be published in Portuguese by the Editora da Universidade de São Paulo in 2023.

As a Humboldt fellow, Ian´s work centers on the archaeologist Laurette Séjourné (1914-2013), who became a renowned specialist of Pre-Columbian Mexico. The first fruits of this work be seen in his article, “Art, Archaeology and Socialism: The Life and Work of Laurette Séjourné, Interpreter of Mesoamerica.”

Ian is also one of our co-conveners for the Global History Colloquium.