Enter your search term...

Global & Transregional History

The GHI’s engagement with global and transregional history is an outgrowth of its work in transatlantic history and its longstanding interest in comparative history, especially historical comparisons of the U.S. and Germany. Global and transregional history at the GHI are defined less by subject matter than by analytical perspective. GHI-supported research explores processes that transcend individual polities and entangle disparate states, regions, and continents. The GHI is particularly interested in historical comparison as a tool to illuminate trends and developments at the transregional and global levels.

Photo Credit: Electrification of the World, ca. 1892. Edward Carqueville, Library of Congress.

Team

Isabel Richter

Deputy Director

Isabel Richter

Deputy Director
Pacific Office of the German Historical Institute Washington
Institute of European Studies | University of California, Berkeley | 249 Philosophy Hall | Berkeley, CA 94720-2316
Phone +1.202.552.8936

richter@ghi-dc.orgRead on

Projects

In Global Transit

In Global Transit currently consists of two separate pillars: a conference series and resulting research network and individual projects from GHI research staff.

Interaction and Knowledge in the Pacific Region: Entanglements and Disentanglements

A project funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research (March 2019 – February 2022)

Mobilities, Knowledge Flows, and Entangled Logistics in Global Aviation, c. 1918-1945

Andreas Greiner

History in Limbo: Airport transit zones between global mobility and local order, 1945-2000

Carolin Liebisch-Gümüş

Knowledge about Mountains and Forests: Discourses and Transfer Practices in the Mining and Forestry Sciences – A Comparison of Central Europe and North America (1860-1960)

Swen Steinberg

Events & Conferences

Jun 23, 2025

Research Seminar

Valeska Huber (University of Vienna)

Read on

Jun 24, 2025

Lost Knowledge and Migration

Online Panel Discussion | Speakers: Eliyana R. Adler (Binghamton University), Susanne Korbel (University of Graz), Angelika Laumer (University of Bonn) and Matteo Sartori (Universidad de Concepción); Moderators: Philipp Strobl (University of Vienna) and Swen Steinberg (GHI Washington / Queen's University)

Read on

Jun 25, 2025

Germans in the Asia-Pacific Region: (Post) Colonial Entanglements, Conflicts and Perceptions in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Conference in Flinders University (city campus), Adelaide, South Australia | Conveners: Matthew Fitzpatrick (Flinders University), Simone Lässig (GHI Washington), Isabel Richter (GHI Washington Pacific Office at UC Berkeley)

Read on

Jul 07, 2025

Historicizing the Refugee Experience, 17th–21st Centuries

Fifth Annual International Seminar in Historical Refugee Studies in Berkeley, CA | Organized by University of Tübingen (UT), the German Historical Institute in Washington (GHI) and the American Historical Association (AHA)

Read on

Sep 10, 2025

Universities and the Public Good: Research, Education, and Democracy since 1945

Workshop and Young Scholars Forum at Herrenhausen Palace, Hanover, Germany | Conveners: Charles Dorn (Bowdoin College, Maine), Axel Jansen (German Historical Institute Washington), Charlotte Lerg (Amerika-Institut, LMU München), Till van Rahden (Centre canadien d’études allemandes et européennes, Université de Montréal), and Richard F. Wetzell (German Historical Institute Washington)

Read on

Sep 25, 2025

Beyond Refuge: Legacies of Forced Migration and Transit in Post-1945 History

Roundtable at the 49th annual conference of the German Studies Association, Arlington, VA | Conveners: Swen Steinberg (GHI Washington / Queen's University) and Rebekka Grossmann (Leiden University)

Read on

Sep 29, 2025

Food, Migration, and Belonging in 20th Century European History

Conference at German Historical Institute | Pacific Office at UC Berkeley | Conveners: Maren Möhring (University of Leipzig), Isabel Richter (GHI Washington Pacific Office at UC Berkeley)

Read on

Apr 23, 2026

Rebuild or Retreat? Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Climate Migration and Mobility in the Global North

Conference at GHI Washington | Conveners: Jana Dunz-Keck (GHI Washington) and Sarah Beringer (GHI Washington), Simon Richter (University of Pennsylvania), Andreas Hübner (Kiel University), Max Gruenig (POCACITO Network and Georgetown University, BMW Center for German and European Studies), and Brendan O’Donnell (POCACITO Network and Heinrich Böll Foundation)

Read on

May 28, 2026

Imperial Legacies? (Dis)continuities and Comparisons between Colonialism and Nazi Rule

International Conference at the German Historical Institute Washington | Conveners: Ulrike von Hirschhausen (GHI Washington) and Robert Gerwarth (University College Dublin)

Read on

Publications

Christina Brauner, Renate Dürr, Philip Hahn, Anne Sophie Overkamp, Simon Siemianowski, eds.

Encountering the Global in Early Modern Germany: Microhistories of Mobility, Materiality, and Belonging

Studies in German History. Vol. 30. New York: Berghahn Books, 2025.

Read on

Bulletin 74 (Fall 2024)

Forum: European and Global Perspectives on Social Democracy and State Violence

Read on

Michelle Lynn Kahn

Foreign in Two Homelands: Racism, Return Migration, and Turkish-German History

Publications of the German Historical Institute. Cambridge University Press, 2024.

Read on

Bulletin 73 (Spring 2024)

Forum: Antisemitism and Sexualities

Read on

Jan C. Jansen & Kirsten McKenzie, eds.

Mobility and Coercion in an Age of Wars and Revolutions

Publications of the German Historical Institute. Cambridge University Press, 2024.

Read on

Bulletin 72 (Fall 2023)

Forum: The German Treatment of Soviet Prisoners of War During The Second World War

Read on

Bulletin 70 (Fall 2022)

Forum: Rethinking Cross-Border Connections

Read on
all publications

Latest News

Opportunities

Intern at the German Historical Institute

Deadline: July 31, 2025 | The GHI Internship Program gives students of history, political science, public relations, and public administration at…

Read on
Call for Papers

Rebuild or Retreat? Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Climate Migration and Mobility in the Global North

Deadline: June 16, 2025 | Conference at the German Historical Institute Washington | April 23 – 24, 2026

Read on
Call for Papers

Imperial Legacies? (Dis)continuities and Comparisons between Colonialism and Nazi Rule

Deadline: July 1, 2025 | International Conference at the German Historical Institute Washington | May 28 – 29, 2026

Read on
Podcast

New podcast miniseries "The Ends of War" launched by Max Weber Stiftung

The new miniseries features GHI researchers Anna Carolin Augustin and Simone Lässig along with other MWS researchers to discuss the aftermath(s) of…

Read on
New Publication

Fall 2024 Bulletin (74) issue published and available for download

The latest issue of the Bulletin is now available online for download as well as in print.

Read on