Water, Hunger, and Borders in the Early Modern Atlantic is Rachel Herrmann’s second monograph project. In this research she examines the introduction of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century hunger prevention initiatives and these initiatives’ relationships with the reorganization of terrestrial, riverine, and coastal borders. In dealing with the history of the changing relationship between hunger and borders, this project will contribute to what we know about the Atlantic World by providing a longer and more integrated history of empires misconstruing reasons for taking space. In academic year 2020-2021, Rachel Herrmann will be on research leave for this project, generously funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
In addition to the Leverhulme Trust, this project has won funding from the Newberry Library, the John Carter Brown Library, the Eccles Centre for American Studies, and the University of Southampton. Thinking through these questions has led to a Arts and Humanities Research Council Network on Native American, hemispheric, continental, maritime, and Atlantic borders called “Geographies of Power,” which Rachel Herrmann co-ran with Dr. Jessica Roney (Temple University). This network arose as a result of a conference they co-organized, “On Edge: New Frontiers in Atlantic History,” at the University of Southampton in June 2016. An edited volume on these activities is in progress.