What are the Features and the Consequences when Historiographies Transnationalize?
International Committee for the Historical Sciences (CISH)
Overview
The International Committee for the Historical Sciences (CISH, France) organizes every five years a big congress bringing together historians from all continents. The most recent congress in Jinan (China) has confirmed a trend towards more transnational cooperation and a transnational or even global framing of topics that were traditionally analysed at the level of regions or nation-states.
In early June, the board of the CISH meets in Leipzig in order to prepare its next general assembly in Moscow (Russia) in 2017 and the upcoming congress in Poznan (Poland) in 2020. At this occasion, the Centre for Area Studies (Leipzig U, Germany) contributes to the gathering of the board with a thematic workshop. This workshop is a response to the growing interest in new forms of history writing as well as to the sharp contrast between these developments and ongoing trends in history teaching, in the politics of history and remembrance, as well as in public interest, which are all much more related to traditional territorial framings of the past (be it national, imperial, or supranational regional).
We have invited three scholars who have both researched the topic in-depth as well as published works on it. They will give a short commentary (15 minutes each) from their experience with global history of work and labour, with the emergence of the global condition since the 19th century, and with transregional studies.
Prof. Dr. Michael Geyer (University of Chicago, USA)
Dr. Steffi Marung (SFB 1199, Leipzig University, Germany)
After the commentaries, the debate will be open to the members of the CISH board coming from Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, South Korea, and the USA as well as to the general audience. The aim of such a dialogue, which helps in understanding the situation towards transnationality in the different parts of the world, is also an inspiration for the future work of the CISH to improve the conditions for cross-border cooperation among historians.