Even at first glance, major overlaps can be identified between the topic of transnational history and comparative literature – the other subject comprising my joint honours degree. Both are concerned with challenging traditional national categorisations, refusing to remain constrained by
A Precarious Balance
A theme that was consistently signposted throughout our seminar this week was the methodological difficulty that came with doing transnational history. Melinda and Bernhard both said something to this effect: ‘There is no one way to do or define “transnational
Looking Backwards
Taking MO3351 has been the most unusual and unique academic experience I’ve had at St. Andrews. While I enjoy historiography, I didn’t know much about transnational and global history as a topic and field. So the terminology used was entirely
Reflections on my ‘final’ project
As was probably quite telling from my presentation, my project has gone through a bit of a rollercoaster over the past week and as I didn’t really have enough time to explain it then, I thought it would be worth
To The Newcomers
I’m often frustrated by the lack of module description provided by the School of History when I’m picking my modules for the forthcoming year, so this week I’ve decided to give a run-down of MO3351 for the prospective ‘next-gen’. Fingers
Thoughts on a semester of transnationalism.
As the semester finishes, so does one of the more academically challenging modules I’ve taken and I have a few thoughts still left over. At various points throughout, I have been fascinated, frustrated and confused by transnationalism and its methodology
From the Embers
When people think of France what comes to mind, for many it is the Eiffel tower and Notre Dame. So when Notre Dame’s roof went up in flames last week the outpouring from across the world was momentous. In our
Reflections on the Final Project: Expectations Versus Reality
As the semester draws to a close and we find ourselves rapidly approaching the throes of week eleven, I have the strong sense that some reflection is now in order. And, since I have been mostly preoccupied with my project
Transnational History – reaching the public?
A comment made by Sophie towards the end our last tutorial regarding transnational history’s restricted engagement with the public got me thinking more about the current divides and how it could be better bridged. In particular, I began wondering why
Reflection Post
Looking back at this module over the course of the semester, I have gained incredible knowledge and a new understanding of history as a discipline. I was never interested in medieval or ancient history, always wanting the material I was
A Field Guide to Transnational History
Listing the key terms of transnational history in class helped me to visualise the vast array of components involved in its historiography. From “nodal points” to “NGOs” it seemed daunting to pin down a small number of categories that could
I may have it all wrong…
Defining something that lacks a specific definition is always going to be difficult. I need only need to look to my blog post last week and Jamie’s comments underneath to find evidence of this. Casalilla perspective that any historians have
Transnational history web
I’ll admit I totally forgot we were supposed to write about what we’d want to see in a guide book about transnational history, so I wrote a rather lengthy unrelated post earlier today. My ideal guide to transnational history would
A Transnational Index of A (nonexistent) Transnational Manifesto
Given the already-complex nature of this topic, I think it’s best if I don’t spend loads of time justifying and explaining up-front why I’ve set this out like I have. Instead, I’ll explain the terms and categories as I go
Who the heck is Baffo?
I’m having an identity problem, fortunately this isn’t one of those identity problems that pops up so often in transnational history regarding culture and nationality. I literally can’t tell who a name belongs to. The name Baffo seems to be