The Global History Initiative
The Global History Initiative at Queen’s University is a research forum based at the Department of History. It provides an interactive arena for international partnership, faculty exchange, thematic conferences, graduate workshops, and multi-institutional network-building.
Drawing from the expertise of regional specialists at Queen’s, we define Global History as a critique of methodological nationalism and seek to examine those historical processes that cannot be confined within the limits of arbitrary geopolitical units. Eschewing earlier historiographical trends that unmistakably cast historical problems in the national register, our focus is on freeing history from the post-Enlightenment inheritance of agency, organizing scheme, and units of analysis.
Together we embrace the standpoint that Global History can unfold both at the macro and the micro-level, and can at once be a perspective and a subject of study. We seek to explore the local histories of global processes and the myriad ways in which the global currents shape the local forms.
The Queen’s Global History initiative is one of the two partners in the North American Global History Network (along with the Weatherhead Initiative in Global History at Harvard University). We are in the process of establishing partnerships and exchanges with leading programs around the world.
Visit the Global History Initiative's website.
Academic Publishing
History faculty at Queen’s serve as editors for a number of academic journals and book series. At present, the Department is home to the Journal of British Studies, a leading History journal that focuses on Britain and the British World. Published by Cambridge University Press, the Journal of British Studies is edited by Jeffrey Collins and Sandra den Otter and will be hosted at Queen’s for the duration of their tenure as editors, from 2017-2023.
In addition, Rosanne Currarino currently serves as co-editor of the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era; Richard Greenfield is co-editor of the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library Greek Series for Harvard University Press; Donald Akenson, who served as senior editor at Queen’s-McGill Press for thirty years, currently serves as editor of the McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Religion; Jamey Carson is the editor of the Queen’s Quarterly; and Ishita Pande is the co-editor of the Journal of the History of Sexuality.
Interdisciplinary Networks
Our faculty and students are actively engaged in a wide array of interdisciplinary networks at Queen’s. Many were founded or co-founded by members of our Department, and they provide an important forum for faculty and students to share their work and to engage with the research of scholars in other Departments and Universities.
Queen's Medieval Studies features the Medieval Seminar Series, organized by faculty in English and History, which provides a forum for interdisciplinary intellectual exchange among scholars of medieval literature, history, art, philosophy and culture.
MSGP is an interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to connecting the cosmopolitan and pluralist legacy of Islamic communities past with contemporary experiences of Muslims in multicultural societies and across transnational diasporas. Our initiative embraces the study of Muslim cultures that span the globe.
Studies in National and International Development (SNID) is the longest-running weekly, interdisciplinary seminar series at Queen's University. Since 1983, SNID has proudly hosted prominent Canadian and international scholars who bring fresh perspectives to issues of local, national and global development.
The Russian and East European Studies Network is dedicated to bringing greater awareness of Russia and Eastern Europe to Queen’s and to creating a forum for interdisciplinary exchange on the region. The network brings together scholars from History, Political Studies, Philosophy, and Jewish Studies.
Since its very inception, History has played an active role in Jewish Studies. The Isabel Bader Postdoctoral Fellow in Jewish Studies is housed in History, and History faculty collaborate closely with the program, co-sponsoring lectures and workshops and participating in interdisciplinary exchanges.
Scholars of Colour is a community of graduate students of colour in the department of History, English Language & Literature, Philosophy, and Classics at John Watson Hall, Queen's University. Learn more about the fantastic graduate research being conducted by BIPOC scholars in the Humanities at Queen's University.
