History of Knowledge

The history of knowledge analyzes the production and circulation of knowledge, taking into consideration a broad spectrum of actors, practices, and social contexts. It seeks to understand the creation of knowledge orders and systems along with the power relationships upon which they rest. The development of the field has taken different paths in Europe and North America. Consequently, a central objective of the GHI’s program in the history of knowledge is to spur transatlantic exchange on research methodologies. The history of knowledge also serves as vehicle for collaboration across the GHI’s core research fields and other subfields of history. Notably, the GHI’s Pacific Regional Office in Berkeley “Migrant Knowledge” initiative is supporting research at the intersection of migration history and the history of knowledge.

Photo Credit: The Wealth of the Nation, 1938. Seymour Fogel, Social Security Building (Voice of America).

Team


Projects


Innovation through Tradition? Jewish Educational Media and Cultural Transformation in the Face of Modernity Religion, Knowledge, and Education as Key Elements of Socio-Cultural Transformation

German-Israeli cooperative research project bringing that investigates the transformation of Jewish daily life through the prism of its central spaces of teaching, learning and knowledge.

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


Sep 18, 2023

Bucerius Young Scholars Forum Histories of Migration: Transatlantic and Global Perspectives

Seventh Annual Bucerius Young Scholars Forum | Pacific Office of the GHI in Berkeley & Sitka, AK | Conveners: Holly Guise (The University of New Mexico), Sören Urbansky, and Nino Vallen (both Pacific Office of the German Historical Institute Washington, Berkeley)

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Apr 14, 2024

Music, Knowledge, and Global Migration, ca. 1700−1900

Symposium at the University of California, Berkeley | Conveners: Tina Frühauf (Columbia University/The CUNY Graduate Center, New York), Simone Lässig (German Historical Institute Washington), and Francesco Spagnolo (The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, UC Berkeley)

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Jul 14, 2024

Making a World of Many Worlds: Identities, Activisms, and Comparisons

Summer School | Pacific Office, Berkeley | organized by The Maria Sibylla Merian Center for Advanced Latin American Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences (CALAS), the Pacific Office of the German Historical Institute Washington (GHI) at UC Berkeley, and the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1288 “Practices of Comparing” at Bielefeld University

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Publications


Bulletin 70 (Fall 2022)

Forum: Rethinking Cross-Border Connections

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Anna Corsten

Unbequeme Erinnerer: Emigrierte Historiker in der westdeutschen und US-amerikanischen NS- und Holocaust-Forschung, 1945–1998

Transatlantische Historische Studien. Band 62. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2022.

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Bulletin 69 (Fall 2021 & Spring 2022)

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Simone Lässig, ed.

Digital History

Special Issue, Geschichte und Gesellschaft 47.1 (2021)

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Sophia Dafinger

Die Lehren des Luftkriegs: Sozialwissenschaftliche Expertise in den USA vom Zweiten Weltkrieg bis Vietnam

Transatlantische Historische Studien. Band 59. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2020.

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Das Pazifikbüro des DHI Washington. Aufbauphase 2017-2019

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Andrea Westermann & Onur Erdur, eds.

Histories of Migrant Knowledge: Transatlantic and Global Perspectives

Bulletin Supplement 15 (2020)

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Latest News


Call for Papers

Making a World of Many Worlds: Identities, Activisms, and Comparisons

Deadline: October 1, 2023 | Summer School | Pacific Office, Berkeley | July 14–18, 2024

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Call for Papers

Music, Knowledge, and Global Migration, ca. 1700−1900

Deadline: October 1, 2023 | Symposium at the University of California, Berkeley | April 15−16, 2024

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Opportunities

Intern at the German Historical Institute

Deadline: July 31, 2023 | The GHI Internship Program gives students of history, political science, public relations, and public administration at…

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Video

Watch recording of our event "Whose Knowledge? Knowledge about Migrants vs. Migrants’ Knowledge"

If you were unable to watch our event "Whose Knowledge? Knowledge about Migrants vs. Migrants’ Knowledge" live, it is now available on our Vimeo…

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Video

Watch recording of our event "Objects, Cultural Heritage, and Belonging"

If you were unable to watch our event "Objects, Cultural Heritage, and Belonging" live, it is now available on our Vimeo channel.

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