Global History and Culture Centre
Report on Activities 2014-2015
1. External advisors:
Professor Clare Anderson accepted an invitation be the new external advisor. Professor
Mattias Middell continues as our other external advisor.
2. Annual Lecture:
The 2015 Annual Lecture this year will be given by Professor Alison Bashford (Cambridge)
‘Population and Global History’.
The 2014 Annual Lecture last year was by Professor Pat Manning (University of Pittsburgh)
‘Big Data in History’.
Next year’s Annual Lecture will take place on the earlier date of Wednesday, 2 nd of March
2016. Professor Nile Green (UCLA).
3. Events:
A Workshop on ‘The Future of World and Global History’ was held on the 23rd May 2014.
The conference programme and list of participants is attached. There was a wide-ranging
discussion on new directions in the field, including research, and teaching programmes.
See the attached list of the other workshops and seminars.
4. Appointments:
Dr. Anne Gerritsen (Warwick) was appointed to a special Chair at the University of Leiden
in association with her post at Warwick. She was appointed Professor of Asia-Europe
Intercultural dynamics with special attention to material culture, art and human
development. The position is sponsored by the Kikhoman Foundation and the Association
of Friends of Asian Art (VVAK). She gave her inaugural lecture ‘The Global Life of a Soya
Bottle’ at the University of Leiden on the 12th December 2014. Professors Rebecca Earle
and Maxine Berg participated in the procession.
Dr. Robert Fletcher (University of Exeter) was appointed to an Associate Professor post in
Global History. He will join us in September 2015.
Dr. Michael Bycroft was appointed to a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2014-2017).
A 3-year Assistant Professor in Global History will be appointed in June 2015.
5. IAS Visitors and Other Visitors
The GHCC visitors in 2014 were Professor Pat Manning (Pittsburgh) and Professor Jeremy
Prestholdt (University of California, San Diego).
The GHCC visitor and IAS Visiting Fellow in 2015 is Professor Sam Moyn (Harvard).
www.warwick.ac.uk/go/globalhistory
Professor Jan de Vries (Berkeley) presented a programme of seminars and a lecture in
October 2015.
6. Research Projects:
Maxine Berg’s ERC project, ‘Europe’s Asian Centuries’ was completed in September 2015,
and the Final Report was submitted in October 2015.
Giorgio Riello’s Leverhulme Luxury network finished in March 2015. Two conferences were
held in 2014-15 as part of the Network’s activities, one at Villa I Tatti (Harvard) in Florence
in September, 2014, and a second conference at the Shard in London in collaboration with
WBS.
Howard Chinag’s AHRC-funded network, ‘China and the Human Sciences’ started this year.
A new collaborative project with the British Library on ‘Factories of the Indian Ocean, 16001800’ is currently being developed. An application to the ESRC is expected in Summer 2015.
7. Research themes:
Our research programmes are centred on the following three themes:
1. Material and economic Life in a Globalizing world
2. Power and Politics in the Colonial and Postcolonial World
3. Global Humanity? Possibilities and Challenges
A series of conferences, workshops and seminars were organisedon these themes in 201415. Recent events include:
- ‘The Spaces of Luxury’ (in collaboration with the Warwick Business School)
- ‘Gems in Transit: Materials, Techniques and Trade, 1400-1800’ (in collaboration with
the Max Planck Institute and the Victoria and Albert Museum)
- ‘Writing the History of Socioeconomic Rights’ (with the Eighteenth-Century Centre)
8. Collaborations and international visibility
The GHCC continued to work closely with numerous institutions, Melbourne
University, the V&A, the British Library, University of Stockholm , University of
Bologna, the EUI in Florence; Birkbeck College, University of London; the British
Institute in Eastern Africa in Nairobi and Institute of Advanced Humanistic Studies
(IAHS) at Fudan in Shanghai.
9. GHCC Small Grants Research Fund:
£12,421 was allocated for this 2014/15. There were 9 applications, 8 of which were funded.
www.warwick.ac.uk/go/globalhistory
10. PhDs and MA Teaching:
£14,030 was awarded as a PhD Studentship to Clare Tang. Next year c. £15,000 will be
allocated for an MA bursary.
The Global History MA ran this year with a small number of students. It remains on the
books next year, but subsequently will be a stream within a general History MA.
Recruitment remains difficult.
12. CUP and Palgrave book series:
Giorgio Riello is in negotiation with CUP over a book series.
Maxine Berg has a book series with Palgrave – ‘Europe’s Asian Centuries’. Two volumes are
in Press.
Other Publications:
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Anne Gerritsen and Giorgio Riello have published one volume based on recent conferences from
the Global Commodities network; two more are in press.
Howard Chiang, ed., Psychiatry and Chinese History (2014)
Giorgio Riello was awarded the World History Association Bentley Book prize for Cotton: the
Fabric that made the Modern World (CUP 2013).
www.warwick.ac.uk/go/globalhistory