Leslie Rogne Schumacher

Leslie Rogne Schumacher is a scholar of nationalism, imperialism, diplomacy, and foreign policy. He holds positions at the Harvard Kennedy School, the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, and the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and previously taught at the Wharton School. His research focuses on European and Middle Eastern history as well as international relations. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2017 and of the Royal Historical Society in 2024, he holds a PhD from the University of Minnesota and a BA from Hamline University.

The project

Title: Bathing in Crests of Foam: European Migrants in the Modern Mediterranean, 1815-1960.

"This project examines the history and legacies of European migration in the Mediterranean between 1815 and 1960. Challenging contemporary narratives that portray Europe as a besieged fortress, it shows that the region’s major migration flows long moved from north to south and from west to east, with European populations settling in North Africa and the Middle East. Through the study of several Mediterranean port cities - including Naples, Valletta, Tunis, Alexandria, and Izmir - the project explores dynamics of mobility, adaptation, and conflict, as well as their enduring legacies. By placing the historical and contemporary realities of these migration, and refugee-affected spaces in dialogue, it highlights continuities and tensions between past and present, outsider perspectives and lived experiences."

Hosting institution: Europe États-Unis Empires-Post-Empires, Cultures, Histoire, Littératures, Longue Durée et Sciences Sociales (ECHELLES)

Selective Bibliography

• Leslie Rogne Schumacher, Transnational Nationalism in the Mediterranean Sea: Origins and Aftermaths, London, Anthem, 2026
• Leslie Rogne Schumacher, “Seeking securo asilo: Malta’s Italian Refugee Crisis, 1815-1848”, in Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1810s-1940s, Andrekos Varnava, Yianni Cartledge and Evan Smith, Leiden, Brill, 2025
• Leslie Rogne Schumacher, “Old Crossroads and New Frontiers: BRICS+, the European Union, and the Mediterranean Sea”, in Transatlantic Policy Quarterly 22, no. 4 (2023/24), p. 102-109