Workshop “Teaching Global and Transnational History” Was Held at the Norwegian University Center in St Petersburg

On April, 4, 2017 at the Norwegian University Center in St Petersburg was held a workshop “Teaching Global and Transnational History.” The workshop was organized by the Center for Historical Research HSE St Petersburg, Department of History HSE St Petersburg,Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo and the Norwegian University Center in St. Petersburg as a part of the research seminar “Boundaries of History.”

The workshop focused on different approaches of emerging and dynamically developing fields of Global History.  

Tamara Lönngren, director of the Norwegian University Center in St Petersburg, and Alexander Semyonov, director of the Center for the Historical Research HSE St Petersburg, opened the workshop and presented their organizations’ specific activities.

The speakers from the University of Oslo, Ragnar Holst Larsen (Senior Executive officer, Depatment of Archeology) and Daniel Maul (Ph.D., Associate professor of History, Department of Archeology) gave a talk on “Building a Master Program in International and Transnational History - the Experience From Norway,” giving the information about international MA program at the UiO. After the panel with the series of Questions&Answers speakers discussed issues about studying Global History in Norway,  essence of Global Education and global educational approaches at UiO.

Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov’s paper focused on some of the anthropological approaches to globalisation. Using ethnographic examples, he highlighted a tension between structuralist and perspectivist approaches, that is, those that stress structural properties of world system or global flows of capital, people and images versus those emphasising how particular global visions and ontologies are situated.

In the continuation of the workshop, Nathan Marcus discussed some aspects of how global history and economic history interact. Recent trends coming mainly out of economic departments focus on the history and role of institutions to help explain global inequality and (under)-development. The history and role of international organisations, such as the IMF or World Bank, in regulating the global economy and its capital flows, is part of a larger surge in international history coming from history departments. Nathan Marcus warned about the pitfalls of using all quantitative statistics uncritically, but argued for the specific usefulness of financial data when writing and studying history. 

Julia Lajus (PhD, Associate Professor, Department of History at HSE St. Petersburg, Leading Research Fellow Laboratory for Environmental and Technological History, Head of the Program “Applied and Interdisciplinary History “Usable Pasts”) presented information about the Master Program “Applied and Interdisciplinary History “Usable Pasts” at HSE St Petersburg and also about Laboratory for Environmental and Technological History, a division of the Centre for Historical Research. The Laboratory was designed for providing research in rapidly developing fields in historical knowledge – environmental and technological history.

This workshop had proven the fact that multi-level and multi-agencies cooperation in the fields of research and education are very demanded in conditions of modern global challenges to traditional educational systems. Conjunction of several research and educational levels and interdisciplinary approach to newly emerged fields in history, particularly in global history significantly contribute to reassembling history as a dynamic and vivid science.