Michael North (1954), who started his career as assistant curator at the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, has been Professor and Chair of Modern History at the University of Greifswald. He has received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Szczecin and of Tartu, was director of the Graduate Program “Contact Area Mare Balticum” from 2000 to 2009, director of the International Graduate Program “Baltic Borderlands” from 2009 to 2019, and is Speaker (i.e., director) of Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research (IFZO). His many international publications include: A World History of the Seas. From Harbour to Horizon (London/New York 2021); Globalizing Borderlands Studies in Europe and North America (ed. together with John W.I. Lee, Lincoln 2016); The Baltic: A History (Cambridge MA 2015); Meditating Netherlandish Art and Material Culture in Asia (ed. together with Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann); The Expansion of Europe, 1250‐1500 (Manchester 2012); Material Delight and the Joy of Living: Cultural Consumption in Germany in the Age of Enlightenment (Aldershot 2008) and Art and Commerce in the Dutch Golden Age (New Haven/London 1997).