From Global Studies to Global Humanities

The article surveys the attempts to define the notion of global humanities to date, in the fields of higher education and research networks and as an agenda for research. The article also relates the attempts to promote global humanities to the spectacular rise of global studies as a field of research and higher education since the early 2000s.

Among other things, the article concludes that narrow focus of global studies on recent globalisation, combined with the marginalisation of the humanities in the field, makes it urgent to pursue an alternative and broader path of research under the banner of global humanities. Rather than taking its cue from global studies, such an agenda should be based on the global turn that many humanities disciplines, including history, archaeology, and comparative literature, have taken in recent years. The points of departure for global humanities should be globally inclusive, transdisciplinary, and critical humanistic scholarship, which will be instrumental for providing the cross-cultural knowledge and understanding that is essential for dealing with the many global challenges of our time.

The article is published with full open access: From Global Studies to Global Humanities.

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