Timothy Olin, associate professor of history at Central College, presented a paper during the 500 Years Entwined History: Central and Ottoman Europe Conference in Budapest, Hungary in May.
Olin was one of 17 presenters from European and American colleges and universities. He presented a paper titled “Views from the Cordon Sanitaire: Kontumaz Stations as Liminal Spaces,” which examined how the Habsburg-Ottoman border managed migration and the spread of epidemic disease, particularly the plague.
Olin argued that although both contemporary Habsburg officials and later observers praised the border as an effective barrier against movement and contamination, the reality was more complex. In practice, the border was highly porous, and any success in controlling movement or disease likely depended as much on luck as on design.
He further showed that migrants and refugees with little to lose, as well as traders in both legal and illegal goods seeking profit, often found ways to circumvent border controls. Whether by going around, over, under or through restrictions, people regularly adapted to and evaded enforcement.
The history of the Habsburg border, Olin suggested, helps contextualize modern militarized borders and underscores how their intended benefits are often limited when they encounter real human behavior.
Olin joined the Central faculty in 2016. He holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in German from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and a Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in History from Purdue University.
