European History beyond borders

• Department of History

Workshop in the framework of the initiative "What is European History in the 21st century?"

The History department at the EUI has launched a new initiative entitled 'What is European History in the 21st century?' We seek to create a history of Europeans beyond borders and to place European mobilities in relation to, rather than at the origin of, mobilities in other places and directions around the world. We will also explore how to write a global history of Europe that does not place the European nation-state at its centre.

This workshop considers the question of archives, and the role played by archives in affirming a particular model of the past, based on the European nation-state. What other sources exist for the study of European history beyond borders and how should we use them? How to merge productively the scholarship of area studies with a 'European history beyond borders'? Moreover, the introduction of a global gaze to the study of national historiographies can reinforce European categories of analysis and historical hierarchies. How can we engage with these kinds of structural inequalities without perpetuating them, however inadvertently?