Rea Vogt
I am a historian specialised in the history of colonialism and cultural and social history of trade. I hold a Master's degree in History and Sustainable Development and previously studied Early Modern History with minors in Economics and social sciences at the University of Bern. During my Bachelor's degree, I did an exchange semester at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City.
In my Master's thesis, I examined the networks of the Swiss textile merchant and later co-founder of Helvetia Insurance, Jacob Gsell, who lived in Brazil from 1836 to 1850. I took an actor-centred approach and analysed the significance of social and cultural capital for his business activities using Pierre Bourdieu's capital approach. In doing so, the work tied in with current research debates, such as the role of unfree labour in the history of capitalism, a history of the interconnectedness of the Swiss textile industry from a postcolonial and global-historical perspective.
Yerba mate, originally an indigenous drink from South America, has recently become popular around the world. As early as the 1930s, returning migrants, who emigrated from the Ottoman provinces of Mount Lebanon and Syria, brought yerba mate in large quantities from South America to the Levant. This PhD project analyzes the transatlantic trajectories of selected merchants and trace their yerba mate trade routes from Argentina to Lebanon, covering the French Mandate (1920–1946) and the early independence period (1946–1950s). The dissertation highlights the emigrants’ agency as they returned from South America, actively shaping Lebanon’s economy, and consumption culture, while decentering the colonial metropole France. By using yerba mate in Lebanon as a case study, the project demonstrates how global trade relations in the early 20th century were still mainly shaped by personal networks, and also contributes to understand better global (re)migration trajectories, and the ‘glocalisation’ of commodities.
Title of doctoral project
Yerba Mate as a Returnee’s Commodity. Transatlantic Trade and Consumption of Yerba Mate between Argentina and Lebanon (1920s–1950s)
Research foci
Global History, Diaspora Studies, Consumption Studies, Food Studies, Commodity Chains, (Post-)Colonialism, Trade History, Migration Studies
