Global, Imperial and Transnational Histories
The research cluster ‘Global, Imperial and Transnational Histories’ brings together historians from the School of International Studies as well as researchers of all levels from a variety of other fields. We are working on different issues related to global history and cross-cultural movements, from 200 BCE onwards. The research cluster actively fosters research collaborations and provides a supportive environment for diverse research activities. Smaller groups targeting more specific projects will emerge from this cluster.
Copyright statement for the picture: Bodleian Library MS. Selden supra 105; Photo: © Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Collaborative Projects
Working Group Project:
Early Modern Jesuits in the Far East
Conference Projects:
All the Oceans Are One: Magellan’s Voyage on its 500th Anniversary (January 2022)
The Jesuits in China. Encounter, Friendship and Inculturation (November 2023)
Outreach:
Global and Local Histories
Individual Projects
Matteo Salonia: Travel Writings and Conception of Space
This project sets out to examine travel writing and conceptions of space in the early stages of Iberian exploration and expansion into Asia. The project takes keen interest in understanding conflicting value systems and agendas among European captains, travelers, merchants and missionaries. Outputs from this project include two academic articles on early Portuguese Asia and an essay on Antonio Pigafetta and the Magellan-Elcano expedition.
Nagatomi Hirayama: History of the Chinese Youth Party during the Republican era
This book length research monograph examines a less known project on the history of the Chinese Youth Party during the Republican era. If there was a significant moment in the early twentieth century as to the rise of extreme ideologies around the world, the Chinese Youth Party also contributed to forging that moment in the Chinese sociopolitical context, but on the right with its own national socialist ideologies and political movements, as mass party politics became mainstream in the early 1920s in Republican China. By examining the history of this party, this book thus helps readers understand how national socialism as a global phenomenon took root and transformed in China in the age of extremes, as Eric Hobsbawm characterizes.
James Fujitani: Early Sino-European Relations from a Global Perspective: The First Encounter between China and Portugal
I am currently in the final stages of publishing my monograph, titled: Early Sino-European Relations from a Global Perspective: The First Encounter between China and Portugal. Using a broad range of both Chinese and Portuguese sources, it tries to refute the traditional “Clash of Civilizations” interpretation of early East-West relations.