Month: February 2026

This week I read Alcade’s work and Dietze and Naumann’s work, both of which offered interesting methodological nuances to the practice of transnational history. Alcade’s text, which focuses on the historiographical shift toward ‘historical space’ as opposed to the mainstream

Transnational history is often presented as a solution to the so-called ‘methodological nationalism’ that was and is prevalent amongst the social sciences. However, Naumann’s Revisiting transnational actors from a spatial perspective and Alcalde’s Spatializing transnational history: European spaces and territories argue that this new methodology is far from something that should be adopted

This week’s readings challenge the positive narrative surrounding transnational actors. Dietze and Neumann show that the “transnational” is not a free-floating space, arguing that actors remain embedded in layered socio-spatial contexts even as they build cross-border connections. Similarly, Alcalde argues

It is essential that transnational historians engage with space and time in a flexible manner since, in transnational exchange, both time and space can have a different quality. For instance, the phenomenon of technological developments like the telegram or railways significantly affected human understandings and experiences of time and space. Even seemingly simple objects such as

A question that was presented in my mind with both the European Review of History as well as Pierre-Yves Saunier’s chapter 6 was deceptively simple: where does history happen? The default answer was obvious for a while, history happened within

Week 5 Both Alcalde’s and Dietze and Katja’s dosseirs address different outlooks on the spatialization of transnational history. Their work discusses scholarly trends that challenge the supposed natural, fundamental, and self-contained nature of spatial units such as the nation-state. In

I found this week’s key reading particularly inspiring in their challenging of the perception of space in history as being a given notion and their effort to bring to the fore studies which questioned such ideas and offered alternative ways

Saunier’s writing on the methodology of transnational history was particularly inspirational to me. The interdisciplinary aspiration of transnational history by his elucidation of its rich “toolbox” — not least how it could benefit from closer cooperation with historical archaeology and

I really enjoyed this week’s readings and appreciated the critical approach they took to the field of transnational history. I had previously been in a bit of a self-made bubble, completely unaware of possible limitations and downsides to transnational history

Kreuder-Sonnen’s article on bacteriologists and epidemiologists in Eastern Europe, and Poland post-World War 1 gives us insights into the dynamics of transnational history, and the changing role of science in nation-states in the early 20th century. The Case study of

Adelman’s Is Global History still possible, or has it had its moment?, Green’s The Trials of Transnationalism, and the EUI collective text For a Fair(er) Global History all grapple with the question of whether global and transnational history can survive the apparent unravelling of the liberal order

This week’s readings prompted me to think about one of the most visible contemporary expressions of transnational life, which would be digital nomads. Having travelled to Bali and noticing the place filled with expats living ‘borderless’ lives on Instagram (working

This week’s readings, especially the piece by Nancy Green, were refreshingly critical. Green’s discussion of agency calls for a “historiographic focus on the difficulties embedded in the lived practice of transnationalism” (860). Her recognition of the trials and tribulations of forging transnational connections has been echoed

When I first saw the term “transnational history” on the syllabus, i was excited to learn about such a board history, yet I was and remain sceptical. But through the weeks seminars and particularly after sitting with these articles and