Doing Global History (HI9B2)
Module Convenors: Anne Gerritsen and Guido van Meersbergen
This module introduces students to the practice of global history. After an initial session in which the history of the field is sketched out and a set of methods and approaches are introduced, the students will be offered an in-depth engagement with three key concepts that are key to current practices of global history: (dis)-connectivity, (im)mobility and scales. These three weeks will explore ways in which (dis)connections structure power, politics and agency on a global scale; how the dynamics of mobility and immobility shape global circulations, flows, and (forced) migration; and reflect on how local, global and planetary scales can be combined within global historical approaches. Topics like empire, environment, and the movement of people and things will appear within these discussions. These are intended as examples rather than offering complete coverage of the field, and students will be encouraged to seek out other areas of research that match their own research interests.
The sessions that follow (鈥榓rchives鈥� and 鈥榓nalysis鈥�) will be more hands-on in nature. The students will be introduced to a range of primary sources (texts, objects, images, and archives) and encouraged to choose a source set (or dataset) of their own at this point. We will incorporate a local site visit such as to the Modern Records Centre or the 糖心TVshire Local Record Office, to reflect critically on how and why materials are (or are not) archived. In the 鈥榓nalysis鈥� sessions, the seminars will be geared towards the students鈥� work with their own chosen materials, focusing on providing training in how to connect primary sources to the theories and methods of global history, and how to analyse their primary sources in relation to (aspects of) the current secondary literature. In the final session, we return to the meta-level of the first session, to discuss the future(s) of global history.
鈥淒oing Global History鈥� aims to provide students with a thorough understanding of the concepts, theories, methods and approaches that have shaped the field of global history to date, with a particular focus on how to 鈥渄o鈥� global history in practice. It seeks to equip students with the means to offer a critical analysis of (aspects of) the field where it is now; to reflect on different archival and methodological approaches; and to to train students to develop an independent research project related to an aspect of global history using a set of primary sources.
Indicative Syllabus
Week 1: Introduction: how to do global history?
Week 2: Concepts: (Dis)-connectivity: Power, politics and agency on a global scale
Week 3: Concepts: (Im)mobility: Circulations, flows, and (forced) migration
Week 4: Concepts: Scales: Linking the local, global, and planetary
Week 5: Archives of global history: visit to the MRC or 糖心TVshire Local Records Office
Week 7: Archives of global history: positionality and the politics of the archive
Week 8: Analysis: connecting local sources to global issues
Week 9: Analysis: using primary sources to extend the secondary literature
Week 10: Critical reflections: the future(s) of global history
Indicative Reading List
Beckert, Sven, and Dominic Sachsenmaier (eds.), Global History, Globally: Research and Practice around the World (London, 2018).
Berg, Maxine (ed.), Writing the History of the Global: Challenges for the Twenty-First Century (Oxford, 2013).
Bhambra, Gurminder, 'Historical Sociology, Modernity, and Postcolonial Critique', American Historical Review 116.3 (2011): 653-662.
Biedermann, Zolt谩n, (Dis)connected Empires: Imperial Portugal, Sri Lankan diplomacy, and the making of a Habsburg conquest in Asia (Cambridge: 2018).
Biedermann, Zolt谩n, 鈥�(Dis)Connected History and the Multiple Narratives of Global Early Modernity,鈥� Modern Philology 119, no. 1 (2021): 13-32.
Burbank, Jane, and Frederick Cooper, Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference (2010).
Chakrabarty, Dipesh, The Climate of History in a Planetary Age (Chicago: 2021).
David, Thomas, Anne-Isabelle Richard, and Pierre Singarav茅lou, 鈥淚s Global History Global? Convergences and Inequalities鈥�, Itinerario 47.3 (2023), pp. 365-376.
Davis, Natalie Zemon, 'Decentering History: Local Stories and Cultural Crossings in a Global World', History and Theory 50.2 (2011), pp. 188-202.
Dusinberre, Martin, 鈥楯apan, Global History, and the Great Silence鈥�, History Workshop Journal, 83.1 (2017), pp. 130–150.
EUI Global History Group, 'For a Fair(er) Global History', Cromohs (February 2021), online.
G盲nger, Stefanie, 鈥楥irculation: Reflections on Circularity, Entity, and Liquidity in the Language of Global History鈥�, Journal of Global History 12.3 (2017): 303-318.
G盲nger, Stefanie, and J眉rgen Osterhammel (eds.), Rethinking Global History (Cambridge: 2024).
Gerritsen, Anne, and Giorgio Riello (eds.), The Global Lives of Things: The Material Culture of Connections in the Early Modern World (London, 2016).
Ghobrial, John-Paul A., 鈥淚ntroduction: Seeing the World like a Microhistorian鈥�, Past & Present 242, Issue Supplement 14 (2019), pp. 1-22.
Lima Grecco, Gabriela de, and Sven Schuster, 'Decolonizing Global History? A Latin American Perspective', Journal of World History 31.2 (2020), pp. 425-466.
Motadel, David (ed.), Globalizing Europe: A History (Cambridge: 2025).
Sachsenmaier, Dominic, Global Perspectives on Global History: Theories and Approaches in a Connected World (Cambridge, 2011).
Stanley, Amy, 鈥淢aidservants鈥� Tales: Narrating Domestic and global History in Eurasia, 1600-1900,鈥� American Historical Review, 121 (2016): 437-460.
Stanziani, Alessandro, Eurocentrism and the Politics of Global History (Cham, 2018).
Trivellato, Francesca, 鈥淚s there a Future for Italian Microhistory in the Age of Global History?,鈥� California Italian Studies 2.1 (2011).
Assessment
30 CAT version
- 4500 word essay (75%)
- 1500 word reflective essay (25%)
20 CAT version
- 3000 word essay (75%)
- 1000 word reflective essay (25%)