A Note to Readers
Some updates on the state of this newsletter
It has been a month or two since I’ve last posted anything on this substack. To be honest, I didn’t really have any grand aspirations for this newsletter- It was mostly going to be a place for me to unleash my incoherent ramblings about media and culture and things like. But that was in the “before times.” Without getting too much into it, I had plans to go into academia this year, but those plans were foiled by the current administration’s meddling in university business (or so I tell myself, who’s to say). For a while I toyed with the idea of giving up on the idea of pursuing history entirely, but unfortunately you don’t really get a masters degree in something like this without being deeply invested. And with Public history and the democratization of knowledge being something I’m especially invested in, I figured this newsletter might be a good way to do some form of that.
It's from this period that I bring you Porous Boundaries, a newsletter about the history of mobility and sedentarization. That string of words sound like hifalutin academic jargon (and it is) but I find it to be the most accurate way to describe what I’m aiming to achieve here; mobility and sedentarization are not limited to human actors, but also ideas, textiles, cuisine, language, and legal customs. The relationship between these two ideas is a constant balancing act that follows a vaguely linear trajectory to where we are now: a world of nation-states with concrete borders1. But I hope you will be interested to learn how our ideas on mobility and cultural exchange have changed throughout different periods of time.
Some Housekeeping:
In the interest of transparency, I want to specify my research field: I am primarily a scholar of the Indian Ocean from the Long Millenium up to the present day2. I’m mostly interested in how global trade factors into shifting political and cultural scenes. In addition to South Asia, I have a special place in my heart for medieval and 20th Century Ireland ( I have strong opinions on Eamon de Valera), and I’ve done extensive coursework on that as well. These two fields are the ones I'm most familiar with; I’ve done field work, I know the historiography, etc etc.
Of course, I’ll be covering subjects outside of these fields, though those may take longer for me to research and write on.
I’ll link a bibliography below as well as any cool additional readings or videos I can find on the given subject since many academic sources are still behind the paywall.
Additionally, I totally understand if a history newsletter is not your scene! I did mention in my introductory note (?) that I wanted to talk about media, politics and culture but frankly I think there are people way more qualified than me to talk about those things. I might touch on those subjects here and there where they intersect with Porous Boundaries, but for the most part I’ll be working with the historical.
Finally, I would be remiss not to mention that it’s a good practice to read everything with a skeptical eye - a prof once told me that all writing is done with the intent to convince! This goes for me and the sources I cite.
Again, thank you all for your support! I hope to see you all soon!
This is subtle foreshadowing for the Westphalian Nation States installment
I’ll go into this another day - Predictably, I have many strong thoughts about periodization