Bio

Jean-Michel Johnston is Associate Professor of Modern European History at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge. Born in London, he received his academic training in Great Britain and France. He obtained his PhD from the University of Oxford in 2017, where he subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher on the project “Diseases of Modern Life” (2017–2019), funded by the European Research Council (ERC), before joining the University of Cambridge. During the summer semester of 2019, he was a visiting professor at Justus Liebig University Giessen.

His previous research has focused on state formation and the communications revolution in nineteenth-century France and Germany. His first book, Networks of Modernity: Germany in the Age of the Telegraph, 1830–1880, was published in 2021 by Oxford University Press. He has also researched the diaspora in the modern era, on which he has published several works. His current research project explores sovereignty from a European historical perspective, with particular attention to small states.

Project

“Against All Odds. The Defiant History of Europe’s Smallest States, 1789-Present”

During the residency, he will carry out research aimed at the publication of a book that analyzes modern European history from the perspective of four microstates: Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, and San Marino. His research so far has made use of materials available in libraries and archives accessible in the UK, Vienna, and Liechtenstein, as well as online. Taking advantage of his stay in Andorra, he will deepen this research by consulting holdings at the National Library and the National Archives of Andorra, as well as visiting key sites and museums in the country, with the aim of completing the full draft of the manuscript.