• Global Environmental History
• Theories and Methodologies of Global History
• Imperialism, Infrastructure, and More-Than-Human Histories
• Globalization and Colonial Logistic

Nature’s Highway: Environment and Infrastructure in the Straits of Malacca, c.1870–1910s

This PhD project explores how the Straits of Malacca became one of the world’s most important transit corridors during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It examines how imperial powers transformed this dynamic maritime region into a “natural highway” through mapping, engineering, and environmental control. Using the concept of environmental infrastructure, the project shows how natural processes and human interventions together created new routes of global mobility and trade. By linking environmental change, imperial expansion, and technological innovation, it reveals how the infrastructures of empire laid the foundations for today’s global logistics networks — and how their ecological consequences remain visible in the present.

Since February 2021: Assistant for European and Global History at the Institute for European Global Studies, University of Basel

December 2018 – January 2021: Student Assistant in the SNSF-funded research project Printed Markets. Information, Data and News in the Basel Avisblatt, 1729–1844

August 2018 – January 2021: Student Assistant at the Department of History, University of Basel (Chair of Prof. Dr. Susanna Burghartz)

February 2018 – December 2020: M.A. in History and Political Science, University of Basel (summa cum laude),
Title of the Master Thesis: The „Indochina Operational Group“ 1972–1975. A Global Humanitarian Moment

September 2014 – December 2017: B.A. in History and Geography, University of Basel

Lars von Felten-Kury, "Wildlife Corridors: Animal Mobilities and Environmental Infrastructure in the Straits Settlements, c.1870s–1920s," Environment and History 0 (2025), 1–26 (ahead of print), https://doi.org/10.3828/whpeh.63861480345877.

Lars von Felten-Kury, "Forschen – Vernetzen – Vermitteln. Die Forschungsstelle «Diplomatische Dokumente der Schweiz» (Dodis),” traverse: Zeitschrift für Geschichte – Revue d’Histoire 1 (2025), https://revue-traverse.ch/article/forschen-vernetzen-vermitteln-die-forschungsstelle-diplomatische-dokumente-der-schweiz-dodis/.

Lars von Felten-Kury, Review of: "Andreas Greiner, Human Porterage and Colonial State Formation in German East Africa, 1880s–1914: Tensions of Transport”, Sehepunkte 24, 15 May 2024, https://www.sehepunkte.de/2024/05/38713.html.

Lars von Felten-Kury, “Flowing Connections in the Strait of Malacca: Nature, Trade, and the Rise of a Global Transit Corridor, c. 1850-1900”, Bulletin of the German Historical Institute 70 (2022), 41–66, https://www.ghi-dc.org/fileadmin/publications/Bulletin/bu70/GHI-70_04FEAKuryStraitsofMalacca_3pp_41-66.pdf. 

Lars von Felten-Kury and Lars Dickmann, “Souvenirs aus Meiji Japan”, in Tina Asmussen et al. (eds.) Materialized Histories. Eine Festschrift 2.0. (Basel: Hypotheses), https://mhistories.hypotheses.org/2171.