Born and raised in Metro-Detroit, Michigan, Mary Walle completed her BA in History with a minor in Community Action and Social Change at the University of Michigan in 2013. Her senior thesis, ‘The Blood Stops Here: Democratic Citizenship, Faith Communities, and the Question of Human Rights in Detroit’s Sanctuary Movement’, explored Detroit activists’ work to address a US-backed Central American refugee crisis within an emerging framework of ‘human rights’ from a city experiencing its own crises. Before moving to Berlin, Mary lived in New York City, working at the intersection of criminal justice reform, youth development, and the arts. After four years of intensely local community development and change efforts, she is excited to once more complicate the local-global nature of both the past and present. Her research interests include migration, the development of cities/metropolitan areas, and historical methodology.