Melanie Falzetta M.A.

Since January 2026, I have been working as a research associate at the Leibniz Institute of European History within the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 1482 “Human Differentiation”, in the sub-project “European Refugees between South Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Spatial Self-Positioning and External Categorisation in the 20th Century”.

I completed my studies in History as well as in Linguistics, Literary and Cultural Studies at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 2025 with a Master’s degree in History. In my Master’s thesis, I examined the everyday lives of Jewish Displaced Persons in the market town of Wartenberg from 1945 onwards, analysing social structures, cultural practices and the experiences of Jewish survivors after the Shoah.

My research interests lie in Jewish history, Holocaust Studies, and the history of migration and forced displacement.

In my doctoral project, using the example of the Middle East, I investigate how European refugees between 1930 and 1970 negotiated their spatial and social positions within colonial and postcolonial contexts. Drawing on selected biographies, I demonstrate that forced migration triggered long-term processes of negotiating belonging in the Middle East and within European reference contexts, shaped by political, social and religious factors.

Methodologically, the study combines biographical case analyses with the examination of colonial and postcolonial processes of human differentiation. By interweaving microhistorical perspectives with transregional approaches, it demonstrates how multiple forms of belonging emerged. In doing so, the project contributes to the social history of the twentieth century.