Melanie Sofia Thut is a PhD researcher at the Institute for Social and Economic History of the Georg August University Göttingen. She previously studied the Erasmus Mundus Master in History of Global Markets at the University of Glasgow, Universitat de Barcelona and Georg August Universität Göttingen and is a Master graduate in European Interdisciplinary Studies from the College of Europe in Natolin (Warsaw). Her PhD is supported by the Konrad- Adenauer-Foundation.

Research interests:

• History of the transformation of post-socialist states in Europe after 1989
• History of European integration
• Women's and gender history
• History of capitalism

PhD project:

"Caring for Europe: Romanian Migrant Women in Germany and the Making of Transnational Care Markets in Post-1989 Transformation"

This PhD project examines the emergence of transnational live-in care markets in Europe in the context of the transformation processes that have taken place since the 1990s. Drawing on the case study of Romanian care migrants working in German private households, it explores how EU mobility regimes, German care and labour market policies, and transnational placement agencies have shaped the emergence of a largely informal care market in private households. Situated at the intersection of migration and economic transformation history, gender studies, and the history of European integration, the project analyses transnational care migration as a relational process that simultaneously shaped both societies of origin and destination.