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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

Feb 05, 2025

Stranded Between Borders - The Limitations of Categorizing People in Transit

Online Panel Discussion | Speakers: Tobias Brinkmann (Penn State University) and Jana K. Lipman (Tulane University)

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Feb 13, 2025

Refugees in Global Transit: Encounters, Knowledge, and Coping Strategies in a Disrupted World, 1930s–50s

Conference in Mumbai, India | Organized by Simone Lässig (German Historical Institute Washington), Sebastian Schwecke (Max Weber Forum for South Asian Studies, Delhi), and Swen Steinberg (Queen's University, Kingston). in collaboration with Christoph K. Neumann (OI Istanbul), Maria Framke (Erfurt University), and Jens Hanssen (OI Beirut).

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Feb 27, 2025

Of Fossil Fuels and Families: How the Oil Industry Shaped Ideas of Race and Poverty in Caribbean Europe

Lecture at GHI Washington | Speaker: Chelsea Schields (UC Irvine)

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Mar 27, 2025

Nonprofit Neighborhoods: How the U.S. Privatized the Fight against Urban Inequality

Lecture at GHI Washington | Speaker: Claire Dunning (University of Maryland, College Park)

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May 01, 2025

Credit's Histories: Debt, Loans, and Welfare in the Twentieth-Century United States

Lecture at GHI Washington | Felix Krämer (Universität Erfurt)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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Publications

Bulletin 74 (Fall 2024)

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

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Michelle Lynn Kahn

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

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

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Bulletin 73 (Spring 2024)

Forum: Antisemitism and Sexualities

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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.

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Bulletin 72 (Fall 2023)

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

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Bulletin 70 (Fall 2022)

Forum: Rethinking Cross-Border Connections

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Andrew Kloiber

Brewing Socialism: Coffee, East Germans, and Twentieth-Century Globalization

Studies in German History. Vol. 27. New York: Berghahn Books, 2022.

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all publications

Latest News

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.

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Video

Watch recording of our event "The Bigger Picture: U.S. Migration Debates and Policies since 1965"

If you were unable to watch our event "The Bigger Picture: U.S. Migration Debates and Policies since 1965" live, it is now available on our Vimeo…

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Video

Watch recording of our event "Global History Meets German Zeitgeschichte"

If you were unable to watch our event "Global History Meets German Zeitgeschichte" live, it is now available on our Vimeo channel.

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Call for Papers

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

Deadline: January 19, 2025| Workshop and Young Scholars Forum at Herrenhausen Palace, Hanover, Germany | Sept. 10–12, 2025

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Video

Watch recording of our event "Democracy in Crisis? Science and Political Decision-making during the Covid-19 Pandemic"

If you were unable to watch our event "Democracy in Crisis? Science and Political Decision-making during the Covid-19 Pandemic" live, it is now…

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