Wirta is a PhD candidate at Leiden University, the Netherlands. He is currently working on his dissertation preliminary titled “Dark Horses of Trade: 17th Century Northern European Overseas Entrepreneurship”. Wirta is a part of a large international ERC funded project, Fighting monopolies, defying empires 1500-1750: a comparative overview of free agents and informal empires in Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire”. His research focuses on a global level on “economic micro history” and “overseas entrepreneurship”, with an emphasis on the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. On a local level he follows career paths of individuals involved in global trade. Wirta has taught at Leiden University both Bachelor and Master courses and has recently published for example about the connection between microhistory and Atlantic history in the Biographical Turn: Lives in History (London & New York, Routledge 2016).
Contact info, e-mail: k.h.wirta@hum.leidenuniv.nl