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
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)

Events & Conferences


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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May 08, 2025

The Hour of the Archivists: Creating Southwest Germany’s Memory Culture, c. 1960

16th Gerald D. Feldman Memorial Lecture at the German Historical Institute Washington | Speaker: Helmut Walser Smith (Vanderbilt University)

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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 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 (Queen's University) and Rebekka Grossmann (Leiden University)

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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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Latest News


Fellowship

Doctoral and Postdoctoral Research Fellowships

Deadline: April 15, 2025 | The GHI awards short-term fellowships to European and North American doctoral students as well as postdoctoral scholars to…

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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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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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