Rethinking Internationalism: Histories and Pluralities

Rethinking Internationalism proposes the creation of a new network of researchers working on the role and nature of internationalism and international organisations in modern history. We understand 'internationalism' as a term that describes attempts to foster collaboration at the international level, involving an array of actors. Although scholarship on the history of internationalism is thriving, and although popular interest in this work has been rapidly increasing, we argue that a major stocktaking exercise is urgently needed, both to map out existing assumptions and methodological tools and to identify persistent blindspots. In particular, we do not think that the multifaceted and heterogeneous nature of past and present internationalisms has received sufficient attention, as a result of which a series of geographies, political settings, agents and connections have persistently fallen out of view.

The network will involve researchers from different career stages and various academic fields. The four co-leads are each taking charge of one of the four planned workshops, and have made arrangements to collectively oversee the project's conceptual and practical remits. They are supported by an Advisory Board comprising David Brydan (KCL), Patricia Clavin (Oxford), Emma Kluge (Exeter), Sandrine Kott (Geneva / New York), Elisabeth Leake (Tufts), Stephen Legg (Nottingham), Su Lin Lewis (Bristol), Erez Manela (Harvard), Nao Mukoyama (Tokyo), Kiran Klaus Patel (LMU Munich), Davide Rodogno (IHEID Geneva), Meredith Terretta (Ottawa), Dora Vargha (HU Berlin). All board members have pledged their commitment to the project in general and to its workshops and outputs in particular. Their letters of support are available upon request.

In the course of the funded 18 months, this project will:

Identify and bring together researchers of internationalism working within different disciplinary silos and at different career stages so as to expand their shared expertise on internationalism and international organisations;
Review the political parameters of scholarship on internationalism to date;
Work towards new methodological and conceptual approaches to internationalism in its various guises, contexts, settings and personnel;
Set up a mentorship programme for doctoral and early career researchers;
Hold two in-person and two online workshops, each designed to formulate shared research agendas and work towards specific writing and publication goals;
Hold a workshop for publishing peer-reviewed articles and monographs;
Lay the conceptual foundations for a new Bloomsbury Handbook of Internationalism, and solicit contributions from network members;
Develop a special issue with case studies first presented at the first workshop and revised at subsequent events;
Produce a survey article for the Journal of Global History, co-written by the co-leads, that takes stock of the historiography of internationalism and international organisations;
Produce a series of blog posts, including the Centre for the Study of Internationalism's blog;
Enable the presentation of research findings at a workshop of the Union of International Associations in Brussels in 2025 and the British International Studies Association annual conference in 2026;
Act as springboard for new projects, collaborations and grant applications, utilising new approaches and intellectual agendas as defined and developed through this project.