Julius Wilm

My name is Julius Wilm, and I grew up in the northernmost part of Northern Germany. I studied history in Roskilde, Berlin, and Cologne. Since then, I have worked as a lecturer and researcher at several universities and academic centers in Europe and the United States, and occasionally as a journalist—mainly on topics of U.S. history and digital approaches to historical research and education.

Since completing my Ph.D. in Cologne, one of my main areas of interest has been the history of settler colonial expansion in the United States. In am particularly interested in how the inner dynamics of social antagonisms in settler society drove violence at the frontier and the displacement of Indigenous peoples. In my book “Settlers as Conquerors” (2018), I examine this interconnection of economic and social forces with the history of colonial expansion using the example of the free land laws of the antebellum period.

I apply digital approaches to history, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and web mapping as tools for source criticism and interactive visualization of research results. My work with these approaches centers on United States history—currently on homesteading and farm development in the Great Plains and the Deep South. I am also interested in how these methods can help historians address questions within European and international history.