Writing History with China — New Approaches in Global History

The Project: Reshaping the Field of Global History

The increasing presence of China on the international stage is a daily phenomenon in media, politics, and in scientific research. While the euphoria of discovering new connections and entanglements in global history has moved China closer to scholars in Europe and the US the recent developments in the humanities of the Sinophone sphere have received only marginal attention.

Thanks to the generous support from the Volkswagen Foundation the project Writing History with China (2021-28) will be able to pursue an increased integration of Chinese history into the growing field of global and transnational history in Western academia. Especially in a time of strengthened global interconnectedness of historians we argue that it is crucial to understand the social and cultural conditions of knowledge production in areas outside of Europe and North America.

In order to strengthen interdisciplinary teaching and research between the area studies and historical sciences (with possible implications for other disciplines as well), we will compile an open-access bilingual handbook for historical key concepts and provide translations of key texts in modern Chinese historiography.

Finally, we seek a transdisciplinary dialogue between sinology and historical sciences via international workshops and summer schools, which will eventually change our understanding of how to write history not of other countries, but together with them.