Brian Van Wyck, Assistant Professor (Ph.D., Michigan State University)
Prof. Van Wyck specializes in the history of migration from Turkey to West Germany. His current research focuses on how West Germans and migrants grappled with the permanent presence of Turkish-origin recruited workers, refugees, and their families in West Germany from the 1960s onward. This project aims to show how policies and practices on teachers and imams from Turkey charged with seeing to the educational and spiritual needs of West Germany’s largest immigrant population reflected as well as shaped notions of race, Islam, and belonging in both countries.
He has held fellowships at Harvard University, the Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. His research and studies have been supported by the Social Science Research Council, Fulbright, the Critical Language Scholarship, the Berlin Program for Advanced German & European Studies, the Central European History Society, the National Academy of Education, the Spencer Foundation, the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History Potsdam, the International Youth Library, and the Leibniz Institute for Educational Media. His work has appeared in Geschichte und Gesellschaft and in the open-access edited volume Critical Perspectives on Refugee and Migrant Integration in Education (Bloomsbury, 2024).
At UMBC, Prof. Van Wyck teaches courses in European history, German history, and the history of migration. He holds an affiliate appointment with the School of Public Policy and works with graduate students in migration history, European history, and the history of education.
Office: 509 Fine Arts Building, North
Contact: bvanwyck@umbc.edu