Global History in the 2020s
About
Global History has become a much-debated field. Is it about globalisation, is it a method, a subject matter, all of the above? Over the last two decades global historians have outlined topics and approaches that set the foundations for a transforming field.
Transcending national frameworks, challenging Eurocentric narratives and tracing border-crossing connections and interactions between societies, communities and individuals, as well as decentred comparisons are some of its common denominators that have gained substance through particular case studies. As the field moves towards the end of its second decade, we want to bring together a next generation of global historians and interrogate what are the purposes, possibilities, limits of global history? Doctoral researchers who explore global, transregional and transnational perspectives in their dissertations are key for forming these avenues and for reflecting on the related conceptual debates and socio-political conditions of writing world and global histories.
Bringing together PhD candidates
In this summer school we will bring together PhD candidates from around the globe to discuss the state of the art in global history and bring together a next generation of global historians. How do you position yourself in the field? How can you frame your research in relation to ongoing discussions in the field of global history? How do you get published? As well as focusing on the content of the work of the PhD Candidates, the aim of the summer school is also explicitly to root this next generation of global historians in the field, in terms of literature and in creating a network of scholars.
Each PhD candidate will have 45 minutes devoted exclusively to their work. These in-depth discussions will be complemented by more general discussions on the field of global history. The summer school will be organized around the themes the PhD candidates are working on (for example cultural global history, environmental history, decolonization, early modern exchanges, etc.). This means that the exact themes of the 5 or 6 sessions will be decided when the proposals come in. Depending on these themes specialists in the field will provide in-depth comments on the work presented by the PhD students. Besides the discussion of PhD projects, the summer school will also feature a roundtable on publishing strategies with editors of global history journals, an informal discussion on going from PhD to PostDoc and finally the opportunity to present the PhD projects at the ENIUGH conference.