Toward a critical global history
On 30 November and 1 December, nineteen scholars gathered in Växjö to participate in the workshop Global History and Postcolonial Studies, organised by LNUC Concurrences's Research Cluster for Colonial Connections and Comparisons.
The purpose of the workshop was to take stock on the current debates and challenges in the fields of global history and postcolonial studies, particularly with regard to much criticism in recent years.
Global history has been accused of macro-historical and connectivity bias, lingering Eurocentrism, Anglophone dominance, and teleological, globalizing, and neoliberal leanings. Moreover, the decolonial movement in recent years has posed another challenge to both global history and postcolonial studies, and a nationalist backlash in many countries around the world has led to calls for a return to national history, thereby challenging the fundamental premises of global history and postcolonial studies. These and many other aspects of global history and the way forward were debated at the workshop.
The workshop is intended to be a starting point for a deeper discussion about the many challenges facing global history and postcolonial studies today, as well as about the opportunities that the recent calls to decolonise Academia and knowledge in general provides. More activities and publications on the theme of critical global history will follow in 2025.