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Although for many ‘the Miss World Beauty Pageant’ is no more than an out-dated guilty pleasure, in its heyday the contest was covered by the BBC and drew in over 27.5 million viewers for the 1968 finale.[1] Today, similar international

In the shadow of the Second International: Social-democratic colonial policy in France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, 1936-1958. Historical Context: Prior to the First World War, the parties of the Second International were bound to a firmly anti-colonialist and

Japan’s entry into the modern, globalised era arguably came in the 1850s with Commodore Matthew Perry’s expedition to Japan in 1853 and the forced opening of Japanese ports to Western trade and commerce. The bluntness of Western imperialism, as epitomised

The Opium Trade was an international network to behold. The diversity of actors involved in the trade make its history truly transnational. Over the course of the late modern period, Opium came to be the most important commodity in Western

Valide Sultans (the official mothers of the Ottoman Sultan), are ideally suited for transnational analysis. The Ottomans relied heavily on a slave system for filling high ranking positions, including in the Sultan’s harem, because they believed that slaves would not

The English Factory at Hirado, Japan. A Microhistory of English Merchants in the early 17th century. We often talk about the practicality of transnational history; why do we study it? What can we truly learn? It seems that transnational ideas

In 1788, French botaniste du roi Hyppolyte Nectoux received seven new plants from British crown botanist Dr. Thomas Clarke for his botanical station at Saint Domingue, and in 1789 he received twenty more. This remarkable example of cross-cultural knowledge exchange

Research Question:  To what extent do supranational organisations impact individual identity in the case of the European Union (EU)? Thesis While EU citizens identify themselves as Europeans, they foremost identify with their national roots. However, all Europeans share an identifying

Art can be an excellent medium for learning about other cultures. I find film to be the most engaging of all common art forms. It feeds on our most perceptive senses – sight and sound — but also taps in

My other module I’m taking this semester covers modern Iran form 1800 to the present day. Last week we covered the Great Game, which refers to the imperial competition in Central Asia between the juggernaut empires of Russia and Britain.

It seems that in the last two years, transnational ideas have been challenged across the world. From Brexit to Trump and his trade protectionist policies the interconnectedness of the world seems to be unravelling at its seams. Repeatedly politicians hark

Last night I attended one of the student run fashion shows, Ubuntu. The show was suppose to be set in Mansa Musa’s Court prior to western colonisation. The vision was to recover the narrative of a strong, powerful, and flourishing

This week I’ve decided to write about cooking.  Before I left for the holiday period last semester I was given Michel Roux’s new cookbook, the french revolution. Its packed with traditional French recipes that appear under subheadings like ‘Légumes, Légumineuses et

On 18th October 1954 Antigone Costanda, Miss Egypt, became the first non-European to be crowned Miss World. The following year, during the 1955 Miss World beauty pageant, Costanda did not attend the event and crown her successor as per the

When mentioning terms such as colonialism and English identity, I tend associate words such as oppression and superiority (at least a superiority complex). Within my project however, I will seek to challenge these preconceptions by focusing on the earlier stages