On November 9, cluster associate member Dr. Johanna Beamish was awarded one of three Albert Ballin Awards, the „Albert Ballin Awards for Globalization,“ presented by the Hapag-Lloyd AG at a gala reception in Hamburg City Hall. The award honors Dr. Baemish‘s dissertation Im Transit auf dem Ozean – Schiffszeitungen als Dokumente globaler Verbindungen im 19. Jahrhundert, which was published in August. The book is based on her research at the Cluster „Asia and Europe“ and analyses the transit experience of passengers aboard intercontinental vessels by examining newspapers written and edited aboard ship.
The “Albert Ballin Awards for Globalization Research,” worth 5.000 €, is awarded to up-and-coming young academics and researchers whose research broadens and deepens the understanding regarding the opportunities and risks of globalization in an exemplary manner. The awards promote innovative and critical projects that use social science, the humanities and cultural studies to investigate the processes and problems of globalization, thereby laying the groundwork for responsible action in the future. Hapag-Lloyd AG was establishing the awards for the first time; beginning in 2018, the prices will be awarded every four years. Hapag-Lloyd AG is one of the leading service providers in the global container transport sector. Albert Ballin was the former shipping company executive.
Dr. Johanna Beamish was a member of the Cluster Asia and Europe in a Global Context and conducted her Phd project "Experiencing transit in a globalizing world: Shipboard periodicals aboard intercontinental vessels in the 19th century" within the research group MC12 Floating Spaces: Ships as Floating Transcultural Spaces. She defended her Phd in November 2016 and has been working for the Max Weber Foundation – German Humanities Institutes Abroad since January 2015.