2024 Peer-reviewed articles
South Asian Migration and Colonial Records: Some Challenges in Reconstructing the Bengali Historical Migration
By Gazi Mizanur Rahman, Ph.D., BRAC University, Bangladesh
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© 2024 The Middle Ground Journal (ISSN: 2155-1103) Number 27, Spring 2024
Abstract: This article explores transregional connectivity between South and Southeast Asia, which facilitated the mobility of people, goods, ideas, and plants. However, imprecise labeling of diverse South Asian migrants in colonial records has made it difficult to reconstruct the historical migration of specific South Asian communities. This paper proposes techniques to recover their history, using the example of Bengali mobility, by consulting archival documents, oral testimonies, and other primary sources. This study calls on academics, historians, and experts on mobility studies to be vigilant of indiscriminate categorizing systems in colonial records because stereotypes and imprecise ethnic identity in such records may mislead them.
Keywords: colonial records, India, South Asia, Bengal, Bengali Migrants, British Malaya, Straits Settlements, Malay World
About the Author: With a background in transnational and spatial history as well as historical migration and diasporas in modern Asia, Dr Gazi Mizanur Rahman is an Assistant Professor of History at the BRAC University of Bangladesh. Prior to joining the BRACU, he was a teaching assistant at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam (2019), an adjunct faculty at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (2021-22), North South University (2022), and Bangladesh Islami University (2014-2016). Rahman holds a BA (Hons, 2005), an MA (2007), an MPhil (2013) in History from the University of Dhaka, and a PhD with Distinction (2021) from the Universiti Brunei Darussalam.
Edited by Birgit Schneider; special thanks to the anonymous peer reviewers.
Special Issue Article on “Crisis and Recovery,” the theme for the Midwest World History Association’s 2021 conference.
The First and Second Taiwan Strait Crises in Cold-War Asia: An Overview
By Nabanipa Majumder, History Ph.D. , Texas Tech University
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© 2024 The Middle Ground Journal (ISSN: 2155-1103) Number 27, Spring 2024
Abstract: This article discusses the geopolitical confrontation between the United States and Communist China during the first Taiwan Strait Crisis (1954-55) and the subsequent 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis. It argues that the crises in the Taiwan Strait had the potential to escalate into a global confrontation, unlike the proxy wars in Korea and Vietnam. The Taiwan Strait crises went on for almost twenty years (1950s-1970s), affecting neighboring countries’ political developments, and while they were mostly confined to direct military actions by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China, they had the potential to bring the world to the brink of a nuclear war. This topic is significant because, unlike the proxy wars between superpowers, the Taiwan Strait crises posed a more credible risk, thereby underscoring the volatility of international relations and strategic dynamics of the Cold War period.
Keywords: Taiwan Strait, Formosa Resolution, Taiwan, Republic of China, People’s Republic of China (PRC), India, Soviet Union, Cold War, Communism, diplomatic history, military aid, nuclear conflict
About the Author: Nabanipa Majumder completed a Ph.D. in history at Texas Tech University. Their dissertation, “In the Shadows of Sonar Bangla: Revisiting the Birth of Bangladesh, 1947-1971,” focuses on the socio-political and cultural transformations within the new nation of Pakistan, from the Partition of India in 1947 to the creation of Bangladesh in 1971.
Edited by Birgit Schneider; special thanks to the anonymous peer reviewers.
Special Issue Article on “Crisis and Recovery,” the theme for the Midwest World History Association’s 2021 conference.
Funding Democracy: Examining the Role of Research in Universities During the Cold War
By Bethany Holley-Griffith, Graduate Student, University of Central Oklahoma
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© 2024 The Middle Ground Journal (ISSN: 2155-1103) Number 27, Spring 2024
Abstract: Federal funding increased to university research sectors at the close of WWII to fulfill two missions: project American democratic values onto other nations and promote the power of the US military through scientific research. This research seeks to examine those ambitions and see how they influence modern research funding decisions.
Keywords: Cold War, research universities, university funding, soft power, US policy, military contracts, Sputnik, STEM, foreign exchange programs, Confucius Institutes
About the Author: Bethany Holley-Griffith is a graduate student at the University of Central Oklahoma.
Edited by Justin Quinn Olmstead; special thanks to the anonymous peer reviewers.
Special Issue Article on “Crisis and Recovery,” the theme for the Midwest World History Association’s 2021 conference.