Global History and Culture Centre
Meeting Wednesday 8th October 2008
Present: Maxine Berg, Giorgio Riello, Anne Gerritsen, Christian Hess, David Hardiman,
Margot Finn, Bishnupria Gupta, Clare Anderson, Gad Heuman, Daniel Branch
Apologies: Anthony Macfarlane, Roberta Bivens, Guminder Bhambra
1. Welcome to new members
Maxine welcomed new members to the Centre, Roberta Bivens, Daniel Branch
2. Minutes of The Management Committee Meeting
Minutes accepted
3. Report on the MA programme
Maxine reported that the MA programme now is up running. A number of
lectures have created a series of seminars to form the Core Course, which gives
the students exposure of various topics and subjects.
The number of students is more than expected – a good start!
4. Oral report on events in the Summer
‘Global Conversation’ meeting took place in May.
Giorgio and Anne successfully hosted the workshop titled ‘Global Commodities:
the material culture or early modern connection’ in July.
Maxine, Giorgio attended WHA 17th Annual Meeting in June.
Bishnupria held conference ‘Economics of Productivity Change in Global
Context in Venice, which attracted many young junior researchers and scholars,
etc.
Tim Davies and Tim McEvoy attended the Summer school in EUI in September.
Luca’s ‘Chic’ Centre has made extensive contact to external groups and
organizations in Venice. An interchange application to the Leverhulme Trust is in
preparation.
5. Report on research grants
Maxine pointed out that from next year on, there will be no central funding for the
Global History and Culture Centre. All events will be funded by research grants.
Giorgio and Luca have been successful on application of IAS fund to run a
Summer School in Venice, 25 – 31 march 2009.
Marie Thébaud-Sorger is our Marie Curie Fellow.
Maxine has won a conference grant the British Academy to hold the ‘Writing the
Global’ conference in May 2009.
Anne has been successful on her application to the AHRC for a project on Global
Jingdezhen.
Luca is applying for a Leverhulme interchange.
Clare is happy to give advice and help on applications for South Asia grants.
6. Report on seminar programme
In Academic year 08/09, the Centre has organized below seminars:
Term one: Prof. Jeff Wasserstrom from UC Irvine; Dr. Tirthankar Roy from LSE
and Prof. sevket Pamuk from LSE
Term two: Dr. Gagan Soon from Cambridge; Prof. Om Prakash from Delhi
Dr Kpil Raj will speak to the Eighteenth –Century seminar on 18th Century
Calcutta on 22 October 08.
7. Suggestions for future seminars
Maxine suggested that the Centre might like to invite more female speakers. Asks
for suggestions.
8. Research forum proposal
Maxine pointed out the purpose of the forum is to get people to talk to each other
in an informal environment about their research interests and topics etc. She
proposed to make one evening short event over a meal or drinks.
New suggestions are welcome.
9. AOB
Centre has a new student, Lewis Bush (as part of work/study scheme) to support
any admin work.