Sandra Meerwein, M.A.

I am a PhD candidate and research assistant/lecturer for Transnational American Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University. I obtained both of my degrees (B.A., Political Science and American Studies/M.A., American Studies) at JGU. During my studies, I participated in exchange and language programs at Doshisha University and Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan, and Wenzao University of Languages in Taiwan. For my master’s thesis on U.S.’ post-war occupation of Japan and its impact on Japanese news media, I conducted research at the Foreign Correspondence Club of Japan in Tokyo.

My dissertation project focuses on socio-cultural understandings of human-environment relations and how they translate into policies and legalities of ocean governance in the Pacific. I specifically deal with issues of conservation, illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing, and deep seabed mining.

The continuous exchange with practitioners and experts from various fields intersecting with Transnational American Studies is a point I consider crucial  for a better understanding of regional and global dynamics and of high value for both my research questions and teaching. In this framework, I have conducted empirical work at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, which I was a research fellow at 2021-2023. To gain further insights and build up my experiences, I realized a research trip to Hawai‘i and Japan 2022/23 and a second one in 2025 to Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the CNMI. Since June 2025, I am also a Non-Resident fellow at the Korea Institute for Maritime Strategy (KIMS).

In September 2022, I co-founded the Transpacific Studies Network (TPSN) with fellow emerging researchers. Our goal is to strengthen transpacific perspectives in Europe and support the exchange between regional and European practioners, students, scholars, and experts from various fields intersecting with the Transpacific. As a result, we‘ve conducted the international hybrid conference Transcending Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Insights in Transpacific Studies in 2024 and the workshop Transpacific Literary Perspectives in 2025. Our current project is a publication project which focuses on Transpacific Connections: Perspectives, Dialogues, Future Visions.

Research Areas

• Transpacific American Studies
• Critical Ocean Studies
• Pacific Islands Studies
• Blue Humanities
• International Relations
• Collective Memory/Peace and Conflict Studies

Contact

Sandra Meerwein, M.A.

Philosophicum II
Jakob-Welder-Weg 20
Room 02.201

Phone: +49-6131-39-22033
smeerwein@uni-mainz.de

Office hours: by appointment

Downloads

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Links

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