Julian Corbett Prize 2026 by the Institute of Historical Research (London)

24 August 2026

Article: "Rethinking the Nineteenth-Century Habsburg Empire from the Deck of a Lloyd Steamship: Cosmopolitanism, Imperialist and Regionalist Practices in the Age of Rising Nationalism”.

My paper focuses on the Lloyd Steamship Company as a window to the wider socio-political dynamics of the Habsburg Empire's maritime domains in the Adriatic coasts. The nineteenth-century Adriatic territories are commonly described as a fulcrum of rising nationalism; however, I argue that multiple allegiances coexisted along the Adriatic shores. In this paper, I present Lloyd as a product of that world, woven with complex identities. I focus on how the company held cosmopolitan, imperial and Adriatic regionalist impulses between the 1840s and 1870s. This paper combines qualitative analysis and digital humanities methodologies, such as geomapping and data analysis, to better understand the complexity of the Habsburg Adriatic.

Being awarded this prize is a great honour. I am thrilled to see that my research is receiving recognition from distinguished scholars in the field, and am delighted that this award recognises the importance of the Adriatic Sea. I hope the piece continues to contribute to our understanding of the broader nineteenth-century Habsburg Empire.