Professor Hope Harrison, Ph.D.
Senior Fellow, October 2025 to July 2026
The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
- Professor of History and International Affairs at The George Washington University in Washington, DC, awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2025 for her work on the history of divided Germany and for her public commitment to German history and transatlantic relations
- Author of several internationally acclaimed works on the Berlin Wall, including Ulbricht's Wall (also published in German)
- Member of the board of the Berlin Wall Association at the Berlin Wall Memorial, the international advisory board of the Allied Museum in Berlin, the advisory board of the Point Alpha Foundation in Geisa and the board of the German-American Academic Relations Foundation and the BlackBox Cold War: Exhibition at Checkpoint Charlie
Fellow project: „Life and Death on East Germany’s Blue Border: The Wall at the Baltic Sea"
Compared to the number of studies of the Berlin Wall, East Germany’s border on the Baltic Sea has been the subject of much less scholarly attention. My book project considers how people affected and were affected by this liminal space, examining the interaction between the place and the people who occupied it. I investigate the experiences of people who lived, worked (including border soldiers and navy personnel who served on naval vessels), vacationed, escaped, and/or died at East Germany’s “blue border,” or at the coastal boundary approaching the border and how they remember this period.