GHCC History
Global History at Warwick
The Global History and Culture Centre counts ca. 50 Warwick staff and PhD researchers amongst its members, in addition to several dozen external affiliates at institutions around the world. The research interests of Centre members span the entire globe and range from antiquity till the present, with particular strengths in global material culture, the global history of science, technology, and the environment, histories of colonialism and decolonisation in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, and a new focus area in the global history of travel.
Despite this diversity of topics, members share an interest in tracing processes of which the impact stretches beyond individual states or regions, as well as in exploring how their areas of focus took shape through contacts and connections with other parts of the world. At Warwick, the Centre’s priority is to encourage further exchange between regional specialists and form a focal point for postgraduate students and postdoctoral and visiting researchers. Beyond Warwick, GHCC engages pro-actively with global historians based in other institutions.
Centre Directors
- Professor Maxine Berg (Founding Director, 2007-2011)
- Professor Anne Gerritsen (2011-2013, 2014-2015, 2017-2021)
- Professor Dan Branch (2013-2014)
- Professor Giorgio Riello (2013-2014, 2016-2017)
- Dr Guido van Meersbergen (2021-2025)
Centre Coordinator
- Ms Amy Evans (2007-)
The early 2000s witnessed the “global turn” in historical writing. Representing a mix of approaches drawing from economic and comparative history, postcolonial studies, historical sociology, and the new globalisation studies, “global history” challenged national and imperial histories, traditional area studies, and poststructural and postcolonial cultural histories. It drew on comparative and connective methodologies to recast key historical questions. Founded in 2007 by Professor Maxine Berg, the Global History and Culture Centre helped establish the global history approach in the UK and internationally and gave visibility to the new field of global material culture.
A major milestone was the “Writing the History of the Global: Challenges for the 21st century” conference held at the British Academy in 2009. It brought together world-leading historians including Kenneth Pomeranz, Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Linda Colley, Jack Goldstone, among many others, to reflect on the concept of the “global”, the pressing challenges it posed, and possible future directions for the global historical approach. Edited by Maxine Berg, essays based on the conference were published in the landmark volume Writing the History of the Global (2013). The event also featured a set of “Global Conversations”, which are recorded in full and can be accessed here.
From the outset, the Global History and Culture Centre’s approach has been characterised by interdisciplinarity and a strong interest in material culture. Its members explored the latter through collaborations with museum curators, art historians, economic historians, and other experts in projects such as the "Global Arts" series (alongside the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Ashmolean Museum), joint events with the Eighteenth-Century Centre (now EMECC), and several international events held at our Venice Centre.
Projects Spotlight
Selling Consumption in the 18th century - Maxine Berg, funded by the Leverhulme Trust (2004-2008)
Everyday Technology in Monsoon Asia - David Arnold, funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (2007-2010)
Global Arts AHRC Network - Maxine Berg, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (2007-2009); co-led with Giorgio Riello, Luca Molà, and Claudia Stein
Cities of Enlightenment - Stéphane Van Damme (EMECC director) Maxine Berg. (2007-2009) Joint project with EMECC (at the time Eighteenth-Century Centre
Writing the History of the Global – Maxine Berg, funded by the British Academy (2009)
Global Jingdezhen: Local Manufacturers and Early Modern Global Connections - Anne Gerritsen, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (2008-2011)
Globalization and the City in East Asia: New Approaches - Chris Hess, funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (2010-2011)
See our full research project archive here.
How India Clothed the World: The World of South Asian Textiles, 1500-1850 , ed. by Giorgio Riello and Tirthankar Roy (Brill, 2009)
'Warwick’s GHCC has always been a very active, stimulating and collaborative research centre. The GHCC events, starting from the ‘Writing the History of the Global: Challenges for the 21st Century’ conference in 2009, have led the way in the global turn in historical writing'. - Maxine Berg GHCC director 2007-2011
Publications Spotlight
David Arnold. Everyday technology: Machines and the Making of India's modernity. (Chicago University Press, 2013)
Events Spotlight
Writing the History of the Global
21-22 May 2009
International conference funded by the British Academy, 2009
Chillies, chocolates and tomatoes
10-12 January 2008
University of Warwick in Venice
